Portrait of an officer, signed Willem Geets, oil on canvas, 1867, 19th century

Portrait of a high-ranking officer with arms crossed over his chest and three-quarter view in detailed military garb: fringed silk epaulets, gold buttons, red cuffs. The attention to detail is very meticulous indeed, with each element treated with great realism, particularly the work on the hands, epaulets and eyes.The portrait is painted on an oval stretcher, framed on a red velvet background in a rectangular gilded wood frame.The military portrait is a particular genre that appeared in the 16th century and developed in the 18th and 19th centuries. This type of representation combines portrait and history painting.The portrait is a genre that has been around since Antiquity, and an attribute of power for great men, the aim being to show the power of the commissioner as well as his personality.The portrait painter most often creates a commissioned work, depicting the notable in all his glory.At first, portrait paintings celebrated the powerful, but as time went on, the bourgeoisie began to embrace this art form and were regularly portrayed.Willem Geets (1838-1919) was an artist born and died in Mechelen, Belgium.A student at the Académie de Malines and the Académie dAnvers, he continued his studies, notably with Nicaise De Keyser.He was appointed director of the Académie de Malines. In 1877, he won a medal in Ghent and in 1893, an honorable mention in Paris.In addition to his paintings, Geets produced tapestry cartoons for the Braquenié manufactory, including those for the Guilds tapestries in the Gothic Hall of the Brussels City Hall (these cartoons, for which members of the Braquenié family posed, are exhibited in the Great Hall of the Brussels Museum of Art and History) and those for the Senate tapestries in Brussels.Oval canvas dimension :Height 76 cmWidht 59 cmDepth 4 cm