| Remarks |
As far as we know, this is the first portrait that Henri Goovaerts made of his fiancée Lily, whom he tenderly used to call ‘Lieke’. The year before, Henri and Lily had met at the wealthy entrepreneur family Von Waldthausen in Essen an der Ruhr. At their residence Lily served as a governess when Henri Goovaerts was commissioned to portray some of the family members. They would marry in the early summer of 1898. Henri will frequently portray his wife during the rest of his life. Sometimes in quick sketches in pencil or ink, then again in elaborate pieces in pastel or oil. She even appears on a poster for an exhibition (1906). Striking about this very first portrait is the dedication and precision with which Lily has been painted. Her black dress, her white skin and her reddish brown hair are delicately represented in thin transparent layers of paint. While most of Lily's portraits show a blooming, relaxed woman, on this one her slightly worried and tired state of mind stands out. Her thin, almost translucent pale face led their youngest son Frits to note on the back of the painting that Lily was recovering here from typhus. It is true that Lily did develop typhoid fever at some point, but that was not until 1901, when she lived with Henri and their eldest son Hans in Paris for a while (reference: biographical notes in Lily Goovaerts' archive). |
