(Albano 1843–1931 Venice)
The Love Letter, oil on canvas, 84 x 68 cm, framed

Provenance:
Albert Kende, Vienna, 10 April 1922, lot 3;

Compare:
Thomas Wassibauer, Eugen von Blaas 1843–1931. Das Werk, Hildesheim 2005, p. 119, no. 16.

A certificate issued by Antonella Bellin, December 2021, is available upon request.

As the painter of countless female portraits, Eugen von Blaas preferred to immortalise young commoners as they went about their daily work in the campielli and the streets of the city. He captured his subjects while they flirted around a well or at the doorstep of their houses and as they chat, or looked out onto a balcony or the terrace of their homes. Blaas used balconies and terraces as a sort of stage where the characters could interact at different stages of his artistic career. Between 1870 and 1879 he preferred to portray the wealthier classes of Venetian society, the society he had joined by marrying Countess Paola Prina in 1870. These paintings depicted gentlemen and gentlewomen dressed in elegant Renaissance costumes who, from the balcony of a palace, actively participated in the festivities that took place along the streets of the city. When he portrays a single figure, his interest goes beyond the accurate description of the scene and the sitter, demonstrating a discreet introspective capacity. The expression on the young woman’s face allows us to perfectly perceive her state of mind: the redness of her cheeks betrays the emotion she is feeling as she waits for her lover, while her serious expression and half-closed eyes communicate her fear of not being able to meet him to deliver the letter. As for the probable date of the portrait, there is an autograph work with the same subject dated 1874, which was sold at auction under the title Vénitienne au billet doux. It shows several similarities with this work, although it is certainly a more elaborate version in terms of both style and colour. We immediately notice how the young woman in our portrait has been transformed […] into a gentlewoman wearing an elegant Renaissance dress made of a precious fabric and an elaborate hairstyle. She too is waiting for her lover to deliver a letter which is not only simply tied to a small stone but also carefully tied and perfumed with a rose

Excerpt from the certificate issued by Antonella Bellin