Date: 1842
Materials and technics: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: H. 130,5 x W. 75 cm
Inscriptions: Signed and dated lower left: "V. MOTTEZ / 1842"
Inventory number: PPP440
Acquisition details: Gifted by Henri Mottez in 1906
Room: 7
Victor-Louis Mottez is considered one of the best pupils of Ingres. Favouring religious painting due to his Christian beliefs and taste for mural works, he was nonetheless much sought after for his talents as a portraitist.
This portrait of his wife, Julie Odevaere (1805-1845), reflects the lessons learned from his master: the perfect portrayal of the hands adorned with jewellery, the care taken in rendering the fabrics, a certain distortion in the elongation of the silhouette, the inexpressiveness of the face barely marked by a slight smile. The feeling of austere elegance is very much in keeping with the bourgeois fashion of the 1840s.
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