Gisbert COMBAZ

The present sheet was once part of the remarkable collection of late 19th and early 20th century Belgian graphic art assembled by Louis and Berthe Wittamer-De Camps, the owners of the town house known as the Hôtel Solvay on the Avenue Louise in Brussels. A masterpiece of Belgian Art Nouveau architecture and interior decoration, the Hôtel Solvay was the work of the architect and designer Victor Horta, and was built between 1895 and 1900. The house was acquired by the Wittamer family in the 1950s and remains a private home today, with its unique furnishings intact. Berthe Wittamer was a pupil of Gisbert Combaz, and she and her husband became keen collectors of his work.

A pair of comparable large watercolours by Gisbert Combaz - Wisteria, dated 1911, and Orchids and an Emperor Moth, dated 1912 - also from the Wittamer-De Camps collection, have recently been acquired by the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.


Pen and black ink and watercolour, on buff paper laid down on board.