Alfred
Stevens (born 1823, Bruxelles, died 1906, Paris), was a Belgian
painter and lithographer. Born in Belgium, Stevens chose to spend
his adult life in Paris where he was a comrade of the French
Impressionists. Though never actually one of them, he embraced many
of their artistic innovations, including the broken brushwork, dark
swaths of background color, and Japanese elements evident in this
painting. He became famous for his society portraits of beautiful
aristocratic women and fairly early in his career, became
‘hors concours,’ an honor which meant his automatic
acceptance at every exhibition of the Paris Salon.
By 1880 Alfred
Stevens had reached the height of his career and the front rank of
his profession. Stevens could trace his artistic descent from David
(through his chief Belgian pupil, François-Joseph Navez) and
Ingres himself, who is said to have given him criticism at the
Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Moreover, his family on both sides took an
active interest in the arts. Stevens's career began to blossom in
the mid 1850's when he found his true subject matter, intimate
scenes of women in contemporary dress, but his full success in this
genre occurred in the following decade when his pictures were
acquired by such purchasers as the Brussels Museum and King Leopold
of the Belgians. At the great Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867
he triumphed with eighteen entries, a first-class medal, and
promotion to officer of the Legion of Honour.
Though he lived
until 1906, his active career ended in the mid-1890's. So great,
however, was his legacy that as the century closed, in 1900 he was
accorded the first-ever retrospective exhibition of the work of a
living painter at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts.