Jean-françois Portaels (attributed To) 240x190cm, Orientalist Symbolist Painting, 19th

Museum work "Ruth and Naomi" attributed to Jean-François Portaels presented in its exceptional original stuccoed and gilded leaf frame.
Remarkable state of conservation.
Dimensions with frame: 240 x 190cm.

Jean-François Portaels studied at the Brussels Academy with François-Joseph Navez. To perfect his skills, he took lessons from Paul Delaroche in Paris, and in 1842 won the Grand Prix de Rome. Portaels spent a few years in Italy, in the company of his friend, the painter Alexandre Robert1. They then went to the East, between 1845 and 1847. A painter of historical and Orientalist scenes and religious compositions, Portaels was also a portraitist and painted mainly in oil. He is considered, wrongly, as the founder of the Belgian Orientalist school. he will be inspired by sketches made during his travels, which is why he is often attributed this role of precursor of Belgian Orientalism. In 1847 Portaels was appointed director of the Ghent Academy. Portaels made it a free studio in 1858, where he received many artists. This workshop cast such a shadow on the Academy of Brussels that its director entrusted him with the composition lessons in 1863. He went to Morocco in 1874 and brought back a large quantity of sketches, which allowed him to then relaunch his inspiration. Orientalist. In 1878 Portaels became director of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. He exerted an important influence on the next generation of Belgian painters, including Alfred Bastien, Théo van Rysselberghe, Émile Wauters, Édouard Agneessens and Marie Antoinette Marcotte, the sculptor Charles Van der Stappen and the architect Charles Licot. He can be considered as a painter of transition between the neo-classicism of Navez and the romanticism of Wappers.