Alfred Jonniaux artwork • painting • previously for sale Mother and child in a garden

The painter Alfred Jonniaux was born in Brussels and was trained there at the academy in the tradition of Belgian impressionism. After serving as a soldier in the Belgian army during the First World War, he left Belgium permanently to make a name for himself as a portrait painter in both London and Paris. He also painted landscapes and character studies. His portrait, in 1930, of the Belgian royal couple established his name as the 'house painter' of the Belgian court. In 1941 Jonniaux fled from France to the United States. For the first ten years he had studios in San Francisco and Washington where he painted American public figures. After that he lived in New York.