KAREL VAN BELLE | THE FORTUNE TELLER

Private Collection, Paris 

Karel van Belle was born in Ghent, Belgium, where he attended the Academy of Fine Arts. His works range from portraits to historical and religious paintings and show the influence of the Symbolist movement in their vivid colors, narrative theme and often fantastical nature. His oeuvre centers mainly around paintings of women, from subjects dressed in contemporary fashion to the Madonna and Joan of Arc. The present lot, painted in 1932, features a fortune teller with a crystal ball. Her intense gaze is both ominous and inviting, drawing the viewer into the composition to seek out the future.