Portrait d'Émile Mayrisch

Painted in 1912 and held in Luxembourg's National Museum of Archaeology, History and Art, this portrait of Émile Mayrisch documents Van Rysselberghe's connection to one of the most important cultural patrons in the Benelux region. Mayrisch was a Luxembourg steel magnate and the driving force behind the Union Economique Belgo-Luxembourgeoise; together with his wife Aline de Saint-Hubert he ran the Château de Colpach, which became a centre for European intellectual and artistic life in the interwar years. The portrait dates to just before the war, when Mayrisch's cultural activities were at their pre-war peak. Van Rysselberghe was one of several Belgian avant-garde artists drawn into the Mayrisch orbit, and this portrait serves both as personal document and as evidence of the networks through which progressive art entered Luxembourg's institutional collections. The work belongs to his mature portrait style, in which divisionist technique is modulated to serve the demands of individual likeness.

Oil on canvas painted in Van Rysselberghe's evolved divisionist manner, with looser, more varied brushwork than his 1890s society portraits. The sitter's face is rendered with short strokes that model volume through warm-cool contrast. The costume and background use a more summary touch, keeping the psychological emphasis on the face and gaze. The palette is relatively restrained for a mature Van Rysselberghe, befitting the formal dignity of a business magnate's portrait.