A Sicilian Woman
A Sicilian Woman c1861 by Belgian Painter Jean-François Portaels (1818 – 1895); Orientalsk stil og portrætmaler.
This is an alluring portrait of a beautiful young lady that is sitting in a room with her hands folded on her lap holding a wooden rosary; there is a blank picture frame behind her to the left and stone bench below it.
She is wearing an elaborate white cloth headdress round gold earrings with gemstones around the perimeter, a red gemstone necklace, a large blue and green flower that is pinned to the front of her white dress, with triangular lace trim along the edges, just above the flower that has a gold brooch which connects the upper open portion of her dress with two orbs and a pin.
The lower portion of her white dress is accented with thin red stripes that are widely spaced, while the sleeves of the dress are turned out which reveals a red velour lining with gold trim accents; also there is a long wide sash that is tied around her waist and flows down the dress that is accented with silver circles, each that is composed of multiple disc.
Her attire is then completed with a bluish-black and deep red sleeveless cloak, that seems to cover her back and that just drapes over her shoulders at the front.
Photo Retouching Of The Classical Artwork A Sicilian Woman by Jean-François Portaels
This is a remastered digital art old masters reproduction of a public domain image, which is available for purchase as metal, akryl, plakater, rullet lærred print online.
Info nedenfor stammer fra Wikipedia.org
Jean-François was born in the Flemish Brabant Belgian municipality Vilvoorde, to the mayor of Vilvoorde a rich brewer; and spent much of his time growing up drawing scenes of his native town.
I 1836 his father sent him to the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels; som blev etableret i 1711 and he studied under the Belgian artist François-Joseph Navez (1787 – 1869), who himself was a student of the famous Neoclassical French painter Jacques-Louis David (1748 – 1825).
Fem år senere rejste Jean-François til Paris og meldte sig ind på det franske akademi, Ecole des Beaux-Arts for at fortsætte sine studier; studying in his spare time the old masters in the Louvre, samt besøge Paris Saloner for inspiration og for at forske i kunstneriske tendenser i Frankrig.
På det tidspunkt var orientalismen ved at blive en populær trend i kunsten, og dette havde indflydelse på Jean-Francois; også på dette tidspunkt blev han elev af den historiske franske maler Paul Delaroche (1797 – 1856).
I 1842 ved sin tilbagevenden til Belgien vandt han Grand Prix de Rome, og de penge, han tjente på denne sejr, tillod ham at rejse til Italien; hvor han besøgte Venedig, Firenze og Rom, og så senere til Marokko, Algeriet, Egypten, Libanon, Judæa, Spanien, Ungarn og Norge.
Under denne rejse havde han evnen til at male portrætter af nogle af de fremtrædende personer på det tidspunkt, såsom vicekongen af Egypten.
Efter 5 år Jean vendte tilbage til Belgien og accepterede udnævnelsen som direktør for akademiet i den flamske kommune Gent.
Jean-Francois var en produktiv og alsidig kunstner, der malede på tværs af et bredt spektrum af genrer, herunder historiske malerier, bibelske malerier, portrætmalerier, landskabsmalerier, genre malerier og orientalistiske malerier med sammen med portrætter var hans hovedfokus.