Pastel 57 Cm X 47 Cm - Herman Jean Joseph Richir 1866 Bruxelles - 1942 Uccle

Beau Pastel Portrait of Herman RICHIR Belgian crown painter, Herman Jean Joseph Richir (Herman Richir) (1866-1942), is a Belgian academic painter of allegorical and mythological scenes, nudes and portrait of great talent. He is one of the best women painters. Herman Richir also produces posters under the pseudonym of HamnerA 1 (anagram of his first name), notably two advertising chromolithographies for DelhaizeA 2 in Art Nouveau style. Herman Richir joined the Academy of Fine Arts in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode and received the support of Charles Hermans, who gave him precious advice. From 1884 to 1889, he continued his training at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels under the direction of Jean-François Portaels. Already a laureate of the academy in 1885, the following year Richir finished second at the Prix de Rome behind Constant Montald. In 1889, he won a gold medal for his group The Ward Meulenbergh family at the triennial fair in Ghent, which immediately placed him among the masters of portraiture. His presence was noticed at the Salons de Paris in 1889 and 1892, as well as at the International Exhibition in Brussels in 1897. First appointed professor of the drawing course from nature at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels in 1900, Herman Richir then became a painting professor there from 1905 to 1927. Academic education had a great influence on many of his students, including two eminent members of the Nervia group, Louis Buisseret and Léon Navez. While continuing to teach, he sporadically exercised the functions of director within the same institution from 1906 to 1927 (1906-1907, 1910-1911, 1915-1919 [replacing Victor Horta], 1925-1927). He definitively left his post as director in 1927, and was replaced by Victor Horta. Painter of allegorical and mythological scenes, of decorative panels but also lithographer under the pseudonym "Hamner", Herman Richir is first and foremost a portrait painter appreciated by the high society of the time and to whom we owe in particular several portraits of the Belgian royal family. His paintings show a rigorously precise line and a great attention to detail. He excels in the representation of elegant dressed in rare fabrics, but his right conception of the artistic ideal leads him to represent the woman also in the beauty of her only skin tone. This is why, next to the portraitist's work, that of the nude painter should be placed. For the artist, a portrait must be a faithful but lively reproduction of his model. Beauty, in his eyes, has a meaning, content and realism which he elevates to the dignity of a dogma. Always fascinated by a traditionalist classicism, Herman Richir glorifies women, whose well-balanced shapes he paints with natural colors. He was seduced by femininity and devoted her admiration to the point of sublimating it in allegorical scenes. Less known for his still lifes and as a landscaper, Richir has nonetheless brushed, in these very different genres, masterful paintings. He also occasionally painted monumental works intended to decorate the salons and entry halls of bourgeois houses. He notably produced the set of twelve decorative panels for the Château de Fontaine de Laveleye in Boitsfort. Affected by stomach cancer that gnaws at him slowly, Richir nevertheless continued his career as a painter. He died on March 15, 1942 leaving behind a considerable work (including more than 400 portraits) distributed in many museums, including those of Brussels, Antwerp, Namur, Genk, Lille, Barcelona, Liverpool, Budapest, Sydney, Seattle ... He was a full member of the Royal Society of Fine Arts and was also a member of the National Society of Fine Arts in Paris.