Emile Claus – Two Children with a Picture Book Postcard

Two children hold their poses for the painter. The younger sits in a white lace dress, meeting the viewer's eye with a directness unusual for a portrait this age; the older, in a blue velvet jacket trimmed with lace, leans in from the right beside an open picture book showing birds. A carved wooden chair rises behind them, and the background falls into deep shadow — the whole composition focused inward rather than open. This is Emile Claus at his most formally trained, working in the careful academic tradition he practised before his open-air Luminist years.

An unusual choice within this collection — fitting for a nursery wall, a christening keepsake, or a note marking a child's milestone.