Woman at the Piano with Cockatoo

Gustave Léonard de Jonghe (Belgian, 1829-1893) - Woman at the Piano with Cockatoo, c.1870 (Oil on panel) - “M. de Jonghe possesses a valuable quality, one which the schools of Antwerp and Brussels have sometimes too much sacrificed to the seductions of effect; we mean the quality of sentiment, without which Art is nothing more than a carcass grandly adorned.” – The Art Journal of London, 1866

The Female Artists

Charles Boom (Belgian, 1858-1939) - The Female Artists, 1887 (Oil on canvas) - When painting historical scenes, Charles Boom favored sixteenth century settings. Yet his genre paintings, for which he was also known, depict subjects closer to his own time. This painting, showing Boom’s fellow artists practicing from plaster casts, may have been influenced by his days as an art student and, later, as a teacher at the Anvers Academy.

Orcella

Gerald Leslie Brockhurst (English, 1890-1978) – Orcella, 1915 (Oil on panel) - The young, fair-haired woman with a delicate red blouse and finely-embroidered black dress points to the landscape in the background. The position of the index finger indicates a separation between a withered tree on one side and a blooming wisteria tree on the other. She turns away from the pointing finger and reaffirms her belonging to the living things around her.