Alfred Emile Leopold Stevens (Belgian, 1823-1906), Promenade on the Beach

Oil on panel, signed at lower left, framed.

Panel 16 1/8 x 12 3/4 in.; Frame dimensions 20 x 16 5/8 in.

Private Collection, Columbus, North Carolina

Alfred Émile Léopold Stevens was a Belgian painter renowned for his elegant and sophisticated depictions of fashionable women in 19th-century Parisian society. Born in Brussels into an artistic family, Stevens studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels before moving to Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Stevens gained international recognition, exhibiting regularly at the Paris Salon and receiving high honors, including the Legion of Honor. His work appealed to the bourgeois elite, capturing the opulence and charm of modern life in the Second Empire and early Third Republic. He was also friends with leading artists of his time, including Édouard Manet, Berthe Morisot, William Merritt Chase and James McNeill Whistler. His paintings were, and continue to be, highly collectible and are found in numerous public collections including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; The National Gallery, London; and the Musée d’Orsay, Paris.

Light surface gime; some abrading to surface.