"la Belle Espagnole". Huile Sur Toile Par Charles Van Roose, Brussels 1883-1960

Oil on canvas "The beautiful Spanish woman". Signed lower right Ch.Van Roose. Belgian school.

Towards the beginning of the last century, in a luxury brothel in the center of Seville, Charles Van Roose, a renowned Belgian artist a beautiful girl with bare breasts, her gaze is full of magnetism and she is splendidly beautiful. He portrays her while the girl admires herself in the mirror of a small toilet, with her face slightly bent and sensual gaze. 
A pearl necklace and some wrist bracelets called "to Odalisque" can be seen on the step of the small late 19th century mirror. 

The girl wears a particular headdress made of lace and black veils, called the Spanish Mantilla, this particular headdress widely used in Spain and especially in Andalusia, was worn on special occasions, combined with a large tortoiseshell comb. The occasion could also have been that of a bullfight. 

In the 17th and 18th centuries, it will not be rare to find it in the girls portrayed by Diego Velázquez and Goya. Harles Van Roose, leaves us this masterpiece, and highlights the fact that the girl is Spanish, without a shadow of a doubt. In this period, with the flourishing industrialization and new riches, it was customary, in Parisian fashion, to indulge in pastimes and extravagances, probably the rich commissionaire eager to immortalize this sweet smile, had her portrayed. 

In the background, but clearly in evidence, we find a sculpture, very eccentric and particular, almost out of place ... 

It is a Cretan female divinity and the various Mediterranean civilizations, whose symbols are the Earth (the snakes) the strength (the rapaci), sculpture since 3000 BC was linked to fertility rituals. 

Charles Van Roose is a Belgian painter and designer of genres, portraits and still lifes, He is also known as an advertising artist, but is best known for his beautiful depictions of nudes. After his training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, he quickly became one of the best known and most prominent illustrators and creators of art Nouveau designs. 


Signed bottom right 
Certificate of Authenticity available. 
Art Nouveau period, original frame

The frame has glass so that the paint is protected and has remained in good condition.