Gently polished ladies - six portraits by Jacques de Lalaing

Countess Louise de Baillet, 1902.

Better remembered as a sculptor - if, frankly, remembered at all - the Belgian Lalaing also produced calm, coolly elegant, and very smoothly finished portraits; of the examples I've been able to find, the vast majority are of aristocratic - or at least very genteel - ladies. Most if not all of those featured here appear to have been done in pastel.

Mrs. William Barrett Ridgely, née Kate Deering, 1896.

Mlle. Hélène de Burlet, 1894. (The young lady later became a nun and endured imprisonment during both world wars.)

"Lady Saphire", circa 1910s.

Countess Maximilien de Lalaing, née Julia Vibart, mother of the artist, 1896.

Countess Charles de Lalaing, née Baroness Christine du Tour van Bellinchave, sister-in-law of the artist, 1906.