Emile Deckers (1885-1968): Portrait of Hélène van Malcote de Kessel, oil on canvas, Algiers, dated 1921

Work: 125,5 x 74,5 cm

Frame: 140,5 x 91 cm

Miss Hélène van Malcote de Kessel was married with Mister Emile Adriaensens, consul of Belgium in Algeria. The original invoice - on a paper of the 'Consulat de Royaume de Belgique à Alger' dated 5 September 1921 (the painter received 2000 francs for the painting in 1921) is added to the lot.

Émile Deckers was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts in Liège, then in Paris as a student of Carolus Duran and Évariste Carpentier. He won the first prize in anatomy and the first prize in painting in 1904, was awarded the Belgian government medal in 1904 (superior competition for painting from a live model in 1906) and the Donnay prize (travel grant). At the age of twenty-one, he won the first prize in historical composition, and in 1911 was appointed member of the Jury of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts. At the front throughout the First World War, he was made a knight of the Order of the Crown, holder of the Belgian Victory Medal and the commemoration of the defense of Liège. He settled in Algiers in 1921 and became known there as an 'orientalist' painter, a justified reputation that would bring him notoriety. He paints in particular local genre scenes, and notably portraits of young Kabyles, Tuaregs or tribes from the south and the Atlas (link).