Jean François Portaels, Judith’s Prayer, 1872

by Atelier Liesjes

In the twilight of a tent stands a young woman with her hands clasped, her face raised and her eyes looking upwards. She is wearing an oriental costume: a green bodice with gold embroidery and coral-red sashes, a wide cloth with gold medallions falling down past her hips, a heavy necklace of gold and precious stones across her chest, and a headband of pearls and coins. A veil in shades of red and ochre hangs over her hair. Behind her, a dark-skinned maidservant in a blue veil and a reddish-brown dress holds the tent flap open; she looks at the woman, her head tilted to one side. On the right, light streams through the opening onto the gold of the fabric; on the left, the tent wall remains in brown shadow. Above the drapery, a strip of sky is visible with a dark branch laden with leaves. Portaels paints Judith as the nineteenth century liked to see her: as an Oriental beauty in prayer, just before she faces Holofernes. The biblical tension lies not in the sword or the blood, but in her restrained demeanour and upward gaze. The style is academic and Orientalist, with great attention to fabrics, jewellery and skin tones. The palette is rich and warm: gold, jade green, coral red, umber and the deep blue of the veil. The play of light is theatrical yet intimate, as if we were peering through a crack to witness a moment that no one was meant to see. Jean-François Portaels (Vilvoorde 1818 – Schaerbeek 1895) was a Belgian history painter and Orientalist. He studied in Paris and travelled through Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon and Palestine, where he found his colours and costumes. As director of the Académie royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, he trained a generation of Belgian painters. His signature, dated 1872, appears in the bottom right-hand corner. A sumptuous, theatrical work for a classical interior.