Self-Portrait

Eugène Smits (Antwerp, 22 May 1826 – Brussels, 4 December 1912) was a Belgian painter who worked in a realist style, focusing primarily on portraiture. His work is characterised by soft harmonies and a quiet poetry, conveying a sense of dream and meditation, longing, regret, and love.

Smits was the son of Jean Baptiste Smits, a minister and provincial governor, and received an excellent education. Between 1852 and 1858, he lived in Paris, where he formed friendships with artists such as Louis Bancel, Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, Narcisse Díaz de la Peña, Johan-Barthold Jongkind, and Alfred and Joseph Stevens. In 1855, he exhibited his works at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

After returning to Brussels in 1860, he became one of the founders of l’Art libre and travelled between 1861 and 1864 through Italy, spending time in Rome, Florence, and Venice. In 1868, he co-founded the Société libre des Beaux-Arts, a progressive artists’ collective. Later, in 1887 and 1891, he exhibited with the artists’ group Les XX in Brussels. He was also a close friend of Félicien Rops and Fernand Khnopff.

In 1902, Smits was elected a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. Remarkably, in 1910, a street in Schaerbeek was named after him during his lifetime, in recognition of his contribution to Belgian art.

Although Smits was not a prolific painter and sold few works during his lifetime, he consciously chose to keep his paintings in his studio, often continuing to rework them over the years. Art critic Camille Lemonnier described his paintings as a subtle translation of inner emotion, captured in soft colours and refined compositions.

Some of his important works include:

• Carnaval à Rome au Pincio (Royal Collection, Brussels)

• Ceiling paintings at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

• La marche des saisons (1868), Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels

• L’enfant à la poupée (Ixelles Museum)

• La mantille noire (1864, private collection)