Alfred Stevens

(Brussel 1823-1906 Parijs)

'De wereld van de Parisienne, haar verschijning, haar sentimentele leven en de snuisterijenluxe die haar omringen vinden in Stevens een delicate en nerveuze "sonnettist", die zijn visie vaak met zwierige virtuositeit in een gedistingeerd koloriet vastlegt' (A.A. Moerman, 1969).

Alfred Stevens studeerde aan de Academie van Brussel bij F.J. Navez en vervolgde zijn studietijd in Parijs in diverse academische ateliers. Behalve mooie dames schilderde hij tijdens zijn regelmatig verblijf aan de franse kust kleine zeegezichten met een vrijere, meer impressionistische factuur.

Alfred Stevens was born in Brussels. After the death of his father in 1837, Stevens left middle school to begin study at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he knew François Navez, the Neo-Classical painter and former student of Jacques-Louis David who was its director and an old friend of Stevens' grandfather. Following a traditional curriculum, he drew from casts of classical sculpture for the first two years, and then drew from live models. In 1843, Stevens went to Paris, joining his brother Joseph who already was there. He was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts, the most important art school in Paris. Although it is said that he became a student of its director Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, this is likely not true. An early picture by Stevens, The Pardon or Absolution (Hermitage, St. Petersburg), signed and dated 1849, shows his mastery of a conventional naturalistic style which owes much to 17th-century Dutch genre painting.