Francine de Van Hove

"The remote world portrayed by Van Hove is peopled by nude young women.
The lighting which exposes them is of a precise quality which makes their
reality veer slightly, almost imperceptibly, away from everyday reality.

Her figures strike up very natural poses which make us feel the existence of a
precarious yet exquisite dividing-line between the ordinary and the
extraordinary.

Her figures (she paints from ''live" models) define certain canons of beauty.
This aptitude is characteristic of an innate sense of stylisation which has
always been felt as necessary by painters who tend to paint timeless subjects.

Van Hove's art possesses the essential quality of suggesting without
proselytising. It abolishes the distance between emotions and their
perception. The subtlest feelings, the most tenuous allusions she has set down
come across to us in a startlingly precise fashion. And the vibration in that
transmission is pure pleasure."


Based in Paris, Van Hove uses models to create intimate portraits of women.
Her subjects are frequently depicted in meditative states such as 'Stretched
Arm' and 'The Odalisk'.

"My main theme is, without a doubt, that intimacy and peace which women
know when they are alone, when they enjoy such simple pleasures as
reading during breakfast, or losing themselves staring into the eyes of a cat,
or just sleeping."