Constant Montald Belgian, 1862-1944

Acquired in the late 1980s by the present owner

Original canvas. There are some flecks of cosmetic retouching to the girl's legs, torso and neck and some strokes of retouching in the background. There is some craquelure to the girl's waist otherwise the paint surface is overall in good condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Montald began his career as a landscape painter. In 1884, following the award of a grant by the Ghent Academy of Fine Art, he went to Paris, where he enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. There he won the Prix de Rome in 1886 and spent the next three years in Italy and Egypt.

In Italy, Montald especially admired the works of Michelangelo and the fresco painter Giotto. Following a visit to the Sistine chapel, he decided to become a muralist, and moved from landscape to figurative painting. The works of Pierre Puvis de Chavannes subsequently became a key influence on Montald, as evident in the present work, in which the lack of modelling and perspective so typical of the works of Puvis de Chavannes is mirrored.

For the critic Camille Lemonier, Montald's nudes showed off his talent best: 'This is a great artist who dissociates himself from the life around him and lives in a kingdom of myths and fables, among shadows. All the while, he devotes himself to noble, scholarly and suggestive images. In some of his nudes, with harmonious and perfect rhythm, he reveals a sudden sense of nature which equals the finest masters.' (Camille Lemmonier, quoted in P. & V. Berko, Dictionary of Belgian Painters Born Between 1750 & 1875, Brussels, 1981, p. 477).