Antique Belgian Pastel Portrait of a Woman, Signed and Dated 1892
Viridian Eclection
The Piece
A portrait in pastel of a young woman, shown in three quarter profile turned to the left, the head and shoulders set within a painted oval on a rectangular sheet. She has dark hair dressed back and up from the forehead with the natural curl left in it, level brows, grey blue eyes, and a long straight nose. The mouth is slightly parted. She wears a loose gown in cream and pale blue green with a wide open neckline falling off the shoulder, worked in broad soft strokes that stand in deliberate contrast to the tightly finished head.
The background is an interior rather than a studio void, and it repays looking at. Behind her the artist has indicated a wall with a framed picture hung on it and, above, a rail or ledge carrying hooks, all drawn lightly in line and laid in with thin colour, so that the sitter appears to be at work or at rest in a real room. The palette across the whole sheet is restrained: warm flesh tones against greys, sage greens and chalky blues, with the strongest colour reserved for the mouth and the flush of the cheek.
The handling is confident and economical. The face is built with the side of the stick and then drawn into with a sharpened point at the eyelid, the nostril and the corner of the mouth; the drapery is left almost untouched. This is the work of somebody who could draw.
The sheet is signed and dated in the lower right, within the image. The date reads 1892 and is entirely clear, preceded by what appears to be a month. The name itself is written small and lightly in a hard pencil over a pale passage of pastel and is not legible in the photography available.
The work is in a period gilt composition frame with an outer band of running foliate scroll over a bead and reel, an inner gilt slip, and a gilt washed mount cut to the oval. The glazing is in place.
History & Provenance
The back carries two pieces of evidence, and together they are worth more than most signatures.
The first is a printed trade label applied to the backing board. It reads Maison Adele Deswarte, 28 rue de la Violette 28, Bruxelles, Jules Leurquin, Successeur, Fabrique de Couleurs en Tubes et en Poudre, and goes on to list prepared canvases, panels, cottons, boards and papers for oil, pastel and watercolour, together with artistic joinery: boxes, easels and stretchers with and without keys.
Adele Deswarte is a name that matters in Belgian art. Her business on the rue de la Violette was the colourman and artists' supplier at the centre of progressive Brussels painting in the later nineteenth century, the shop that served the generation around Les XX, and she was closely enough involved in that world to have sponsored and published exhibition catalogues for it. A Deswarte label on the back of a picture is a Brussels address in the fullest sense.
The label also dates itself. In 1883 the business was stamping work as Comptoir des Arts, Adele Deswarte, at number 18 rue de la Violette, under her own name alone. This label is at number 28 and names Jules Leurquin as her successor. Both the move and the succession therefore postdate 1883, which places the label comfortably before the 1892 date on the front and confirms that the support was bought in Brussels shortly before the portrait was drawn.
The second piece of evidence is written by hand in pencil along the backing paper at the top: MARGUERITE RENOZ HAGEMAN, with further faint writing to the right. Renoz and Hageman are both Belgian surnames, and the inscription reads as the sitter's name recorded by whoever framed or kept the picture. Very few nineteenth century portraits of private sitters come with a name at all.
What the picture does not yet have is an artist. The signature is present but unresolved, and Viridian Eclection is not going to invent one. What can be said is documented: a pastel portrait, drawn in September 1892 on a support bought from the leading Brussels artists' supplier, of a named Belgian sitter, by a hand that plainly had training.
Product Details
| Era | Dated 1892 on the face of the work, within the image at the lower right, in the artist's own hand. Independently supported by the colourman's label on the backing board, which names Jules Leurquin as successor to Adele Deswarte at 28 rue de la Violette, an address and a succession that both postdate the Comptoir des Arts stamp used at number 18 in 1883 |
| Medium | Pastel on prepared paper or board, laid down, within a painted oval |
| Subject | Head and shoulders portrait of a young woman in an interior |
| Sitter | Inscribed in pencil on the backing paper, Marguerite Renoz Hageman, with further faint writing alongside |
| Artist | Signed and dated at the lower right. The date is clear; the name is written small in hard pencil over pastel and is not legible in the current photography. Offered as an unidentified hand and priced accordingly |
| Origin | Brussels, Belgium, on the evidence of the Maison Adele Deswarte trade label and the sitter's Belgian name |
| Frame | Period gilt composition frame with running foliate scroll and bead and reel, gilt slip and gilt washed oval mount, glazed |
| Dimensions | Frame approximately 24 in. wide by 28 in. high |
| Condition | Good original condition, unrestored and never opened by us. Pastel fresh and unrubbed with strong colour. Mount with light toning and a few scattered spots. Frame with the gilding largely intact and scattered small losses and rubs to the composition ornament at the corners and edges. Backing paper torn and lifting around the edges as is usual, with the trade label and the pencil inscription both intact. Original hanging wire present |
Why It Belongs in Your Home
A good portrait fixes a room the way nothing else does, and this one has the quality that matters most, which is that the sitter is present rather than posed. She is looking at something outside the picture and is about to speak, and that holds a wall. The palette is soft enough to hang almost anywhere, against limewash, against a deep green, over a mantel or at the turn of a stair, and the oval within the rectangle gives it a formality the loose handling then undercuts.
It is also that rarer thing, a decorative picture that is genuinely documented. It is dated to a month in 1892, the support can be traced to a named Brussels shop with a real place in Belgian art history, and the sitter has a name. Most nineteenth century portraits on the market have none of that.
Every piece is packed with professional-grade materials: multiple foam layers, double-boxing, directional and fragile handling labels. For large furniture we use custom timber crating. We photograph packing before dispatch and can provide images on request.
White-glove delivery is complimentary within 100 miles of Reno, NV. National shipping quotes provided at checkout. All shipments are photographed and documented. Damage claims must be filed with the carrier; we provide all documentation needed to support your claim.
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