Charles-Louis Baugniet (Belgian, 1814-1886) , "Admiring the Slippers", 1873, oil on panel, signed, dated and inscribed "Sévres" lower left, 2 handwritten labels en verso, 27 in. x 21 1/2 in., framed with brass artist plaque. Note: Born in Brussels, Charles-Louis Baugniet attended the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts from 1827-1829, where he studied under Joseph Paelinck, a student of Jacques-Louis David, and Florent Willems. Working primarily as a lithographer upon becoming a full-time artist, Baugniet created portraits of the Belgian House of Representatives and fellow artists. He was commissioned to paint portraits of the Belgian Royal Family and subsequently appointed court painter in 1841. With the growing popularity of photography in the 1850s, Baugniet found less call for lithography and thus began to focus more on oil painting, with a work accepted for the 1858 French Exhibition in London. He eventually moved to Paris and regularly exhibited there, London and Brussels until his death in Sèvres in 1886.Unlike his lithographic portraiture, Baugniet’s paintings almost exclusively focus on women in rich interiors, as he captured seemingly insignificant moments of time in spectacular detail. “Remorse, sadness, joy, a whole range of feelings is staged with the elegance, the charm but also the frivolity of this Parisian life of the second half of the 19th century.” In the work offered here from this period, two fashionable ladies admire a slipper just peeking from below the hem of a dress while a maid oversees the scene. Baugniet paints the figures, fabric and fine details of the interior as if awash with light from an unseen window - inviting the viewer to admire the slipper and the skillful painting. Ref.: Wachtelaer, Aline. “Biographie.” Charles Baugniet: L’élégance du siècle. http://charlesbaugniet.be/biographie. Accessed July 19, 2020