Portrait of the sculptor Jacques De Braekeleer

Jacques De Braekeleer was an Antwerp sculptor associated with the generation of Belgian artists active in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. Charles Verlat's 1886 portrait of the sculptor engages with the long tradition of painters depicting artists in other media — a practice that celebrated cross-disciplinary solidarity and provided a complete picture of the city's creative community. De Braekeleer was part of the Antwerp artistic milieu centered on the Royal Academy and the Royal Museum, institutions that Verlat himself was deeply embedded in.

Verlat renders the sculptor with the direct, unidealized approach he brought to all his artist portraits, giving De Braekeleer a physical presence and professional bearing appropriate to a man who worked with his hands.