Portrait Of General Goethals Attributed to Gustaaf Wappers (1803-1874)

This artwork is a portrait of General Goethals, who served as the commanding officer of the Province of Antwerp during the Bourbon Restoration era. It was painted in 1826 by the renowned artist Charles Gustave, Baron Wappers who mostly signed his works with the Dutch form of his name, Gustaaf Wappers. The portrait is beautifully presented within an opulent wooden frame, gilded with authentic gold leaf in the Empire style typical of the Bourbon Restoration period. The painting has undergone careful cleaning and restoration to preserve its exquisite details and historical significance.

Gustaaf Wappers (1803-1874) studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and in Paris during the time when the Romantic movement with its new ideas about art and politics was astir in France. Wappers was the first Belgian artist to take advantage of this state of affairs, and his first exhibited painting, “The Devotion of the Burgomaster of Leiden,” appeared at the appropriate moment and had great success in the Brussels Salon in 1830, the year of the Belgian Revolution. While political, this remarkable work revolutionised the direction of Flemish painters.