"Portrait of the Head of a Calf" dated 1882
Henry Schouten (Belgian, 1857-1929)
Oil on canvas
Inscribed "P.H. Schouten (18)82"
23 x 20 1/2 (28 3/8 x 25 1/4 frame) inches
 
Painted by the celebrated animal painter, Henry Schouten, this portrait is sensitively executed with beautiful brushwork and a luminous quality. The frame is superb and original to the painting. 
 
Born in 1864 in Indonesia, Schouten went on to study art at the Academy of Brussels from 1876-1881. His works were strongly influenced by rustic landscapes of the painter Alfred Jacques Verwee, who was also a renowned painter of animals. During Schouten’s career, he often signed his paintings with a variety of pseudonyms including Jos Klaus, Joseph Klass, V. Marinus, and J. Remis. Schouten worked in both Holland and Belgium and he died in Brussels, Belgium in 1927.
 
Schouten participated in several gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the John Davies Gallery, Morten-in-Marsh, U. K., and at the Union of Arts and in Brussels in 1882. In 1943 a posthumous retrospective of his work was held in the Hague.