Narcisse, 2004
"The more I try to grasp or to capture beauty, the more its mystery escapes me. But that neither surprises me nor despairs me any longer, for I have been seized by a passion for this very pursuit. No matter how vain it may sometimes appear to me, it has become my life".
Francine Van Hove's painting is exclusively figurative, feminine and intimist, with a virtuosity close to the one of Old Masters. Based on young women staged in her studio, her everyday life scenes keep a kind of mystery under an apparent simplicity. Her work reflects a feeling of incommunicability and a saving loneliness, like a retreat freely chosen against the unrest of the world.