Elsa Rubbens - Portrait of a Woman, 1931

Elsa Rubbens (1902-1998)

Portrait of a Woman

Signed and dated upper right '1931'

Chalk on paper

38 x 38 cm

Condition:

In good condition, with the paper slightly yellowed from age.

Provenance:

Private collection, Haarlem

Additional information:

This expressive charcoal portrait from 1931 depicts a woman with a strikingly powerful gaze. Rubbens builds up the face with broad lines and soft shading, drawing particular attention to the large eyes and dark, flowing hair. The combination of sharp contours and subtle modelling gives the portrait a stylised quality, while retaining the personality of the sitter.

Elsa Rubbens was born in Waalwijk in 1902 and worked as a painter, and illustrator. She trained in Tilburg and Amsterdam, where she studied under Richard Roland Holst at the Rijksakademie, and also spent a period at the Frauenakademie in Vienna. Her work often focused on portraits and the landscape and rural life of Brabant. After her marriage, she moved to Delden in 1944, where she largely withdrew from public artistic life.