Henri Evenepoel

This full-length portrait of Albert Devis is typical of the work of Henri Evenepoel, a leading Belgian portrait painter of the 1890s. Evenepoel often painted his relatives, whether in Paris, where he was honing his artistic skills, or when he returned to Belgium to spend holidays with his family. The same is true here – the artist painted this portrait during a summer holiday at his aunt Sophie’s home in Wépion. The serious-looking boy in his Sunday best, one hand resting on his back, the other clutching a bamboo cane, is his 13-year-old grandnephew Albert. His brother André also sat for a second, very similar portrait, now held in a private collection. A photograph taken during André’s sitting has been preserved, serving as a reference during the creation of the portrait. Evenepoel took countless photographs with his brand-new Kodak, enabling him to ‘capture in images’ the children around him. To capture his young nephew in paint, Evenepoel drew inspiration from Édouard Manet, whose *Le fifre* (1866) he had admired in Paris—a very modern portrait of a young boy in uniform, standing with a slight sway of the hips, playing the flute whilst looking the viewer straight in the eye. In addition to this inspiration regarding the pose, Evenepoel shares with Manet the choice of a monochrome background of pure paint. Against this ‘absent’ background, the figure stands out fully, which further enhances its intensity by drawing our gaze – a technique that Manet himself had borrowed from the famous 17th-century Spanish portraitist, Diego Velázquez. Evenepoel’s talent is fully on display in this portrait, executed with a very confident hand, depicting the young Albert Devis with great realism and sensitivity. He demonstrates the full modernity of his painting, from the pink tie that adds a splash of colour to the picture, to the walking stick, the tip of which he leaves sketched only roughly, as if it were fraying. Albert Devis went on to become a prominent industrialist; Henri Evenepoel, sadly, died just two years after completing this portrait, succumbing to typhoid fever at the age of 27. The portrait of Albert remained in the Devis family until it was acquired by the Musée d’Ixelles in 1995. 

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