In the Square - Henri Evenepoel

A graphic lithograph by Henri Evenepoel, capturing a woman and child in a public space through bold lines and flat, decorative colour.

Henri Evenepoel, a Belgian artist active in Paris during the late nineteenth century, created this lithograph during a period when he was deeply engaged with the aesthetics of the poster and the illustrated book. The work displays the influence of the Nabis and the flat, decorative qualities of Japanese woodblock prints, which were widely collected and studied by artists in the French capital at the time.

The composition features a woman and a child, likely a scene observed in a public space. Evenepoel employs a clear, graphic approach, using bold outlines and large areas of flat colour to define the figures. The woman wears a striped bodice and a long, textured skirt, holding a bright red parasol that provides a strong visual anchor for the image. Beside her, the child is dressed in a yellow frock and a spotted bonnet, carrying a small bucket. The artist avoids heavy shading, preferring instead to rely on the interplay of line and hue to convey form and movement.

Evenepoel was a student of Gustave Moreau, yet his own work often moved away from the symbolic and towards the observation of contemporary life. This print captures a fleeting moment of urban leisure, rendered with a sense of clarity and economy. The colour palette is deliberate, balancing the warm tones of the skirt and parasol against the cooler, striped fabric of the woman's top. The work demonstrates the artist's ability to synthesise the decorative requirements of graphic design with a keen eye for the details of daily existence. It remains a representative example of the graphic output produced by Belgian artists working in the orbit of the Parisian avant-garde during the final years of the century.