LÉON NAVEZ | PORTRAIT OF GUSTAVE VAN GELUWE

Gustave van Geluwe, Brussels (until 2016) 

M. De Reymaeker, et al, Léon Navez, une peinture de l'âme, Waudrez, Belgium, 2015, p. 173, illustrated 

The present lot is a portrait of Gustave van Geluwe (1881-1962), the owner of a successful couture house in Belgium and a celebrated collector of Belgian art. Léon Navez has hinted at van Geluwe’s profession with the drawings of nineteenth century fashion on display in the background. The artist trained at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and won the Prix Godecharle in 1924, which allowed him to relocate to Paris, where the present work was painted in 1925. The blending of geometric blocks of color and the oblong, stylized nature of the face of the sitter in the present work reflected the modern influence of Paris and artists such as Braque, Picasso and Modigliani. Navez would go on to help found the Nervia Group of Belgian artists in 1928.