Louise De Hem - 1891 - The Stray Chicken

Belgian artist Louise de Hem was initially tutored by her sister's husband, artist Théodore Ceriez (1831-1904), who noticed her talent. After exhibiting her first work in 1885 she went to Paris to study further where, at the private Académie Julian, she painted living and sometimes nude models (which was at that time in Belgium still forbidden for women). In 1891 she returned to Ypres where she began painting still lifes and receiving commissions for portraits. She exhibited widely, being the only Belgian painter to exhibit at the Women's Exhibition in London in 1900, and in 1904 she won a gold medal in Paris for her painting 'The Japanese Doll'.