{"product_id":"brothers","title":"Portrait of Five Children, 1939 | French or Belgian School","description":"\u003cp class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchorContainer\"\u003eA wonderfully compelling family portrait, painted in 1939.\u003cspan class=\"PDq2pG_selectionAnchor\"\u003e\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFive children, four boys and a girl, have been gathered together for a portrait sitting. They appear very likely to be siblings, although their identities have been lost.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThere is something wonderfully serious about them. Nobody has been coaxed into smiling and there is none of the sweetness or sentimentality so often found in paintings of children from this period. Instead, the painter has concentrated on their individual characters. Five different faces and expressions, brought tightly together into one remarkably strong composition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI particularly love the restrained palette. Sage green, grey, tobacco brown, cream and black give the painting an unmistakably late-1930s feel. The faces are carefully observed, while the clothes and background are handled much more broadly and economically. It gives what is essentially a traditional family portrait a distinctly modern quality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe painting is signed indistinctly, apparently “Baily”, and dated ’39. It was acquired in Belgium.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI have researched a number of French and Belgian artists named Baily who were working during this period, but haven't found sufficient evidence to confidently identify the painter. Rather than make an attribution fit, I have left the artist open.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhoever Baily was, they were a very capable portrait painter.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"viki.knott","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57375383093628,"sku":null,"price":480.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0505\/7295\/1736\/files\/0EE7D5CE-4B64-4669-B511-8967DAD3BC45.jpg?v=1788193841","url":"https:\/\/www.vikiknott.com\/products\/brothers","provider":"viki.knott","version":"1.0","type":"link"}