Henri Joseph Thomas (1878 - 1972) Belgian School - Green Shoes.

Green shoes - 1930's.

Oil on canvas, signed upper left.
Dimensions: 61 x 76 cm - with frame: 77 x 90 cm. Original art deco frame.

This painting represents one of his favorite models. The tone is pretty, pleasant at first glance, delicately cheeky and erotic at the second. The painter enjoys wrapping his lady in a cocoon of delicate fabrics. The satin and transparent tones echo the model's alabaster skin. The study is inspired by the classic and neutral academic nude to bring it to the dawn of anecdote and storytelling. A lady, as she gets dressed, leans over the bed to retrieve her indoor shoe. His air is happy, his face fresh and rosy. The tone is like the Fragonards of the 18th century, it celebrates the joy of pleasures and the celebration of life.

A pupil of the Brussels Academy, he exhibited at the Cercle Artistique in 1906, 1909 and 1921 and at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts from 1906 to 1910. The artist exercises his profession between Brussels and Paris, in the continuation of what previous colleagues, Odilon Redon, Felicien Rops, among others, had undertaken: to open and make prosper the axis between the two capitals. His career is long and his art recognized; it is collected in Europe by museums and private collectors. In addition to his qualities as a painter and sculptor, he is known to be an etcher. It illustrates "La Toison de Phryné" written by Théodore Hannon (1913) and the 1925 reissue of "Diaboliques" by Barbey d'Aurevilly. He paints the universe and the setbacks of the bourgeois trapped in the nocturnal circus of Parisian and Montmartre nights. Subsequently, he portrays the worldly atmosphere of the interiors of the 1920s. Women adorn themselves with jewels and surround themselves with silky fabrics.

Museums: Brussels, Bruges, Liège, Barcelona.

Bibliography: Emmanuel Bénézit, Dictionary of painters, sculptors, designers and engravers, t. X, Librairie Gründ, reprint. 1976, p. 154