Charles van den Eycken Belgian, 1859-1923

Charles van den Eycken was a Belgian painter who specialised in interior scenes and animal subjects. He studied with Joseph Edouard Stevens (1819-1892), who dominated the Belgian school of animal painting in the 19th century. Van den Eycken absorbed both his teacher's delight in the dramas of the lives of domestic animals and his distinctive working methods, which were rooted in the direct and constant observation of nature. Van den Eycken made his debut in 1880 at the Brussels Salon, where he continued to exhibit regularly throughout his life.

Exceptional in size, the present lot, depicting a mother cat with playful kittens, is an undisputed highlight in the oeuvre of the artist.