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Dimensions: 46.5 by 64cm., 18 1/4 by 25 1/4 in.

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Provenance: PROPERTY FROM A BRITISH PRIVATE COLLECTION

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner circa 1900; thence by descent

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Notes: Emile Claus began his professional life as a baker's apprentice, a railway inspector and a linen merchant before his father allowed him to follow his vocation and study fine art at the Antwerp Academy. From 1869 onwards he took lessons at the Academy from Nicaise de Keyser and Jacob Jacobs, but soon abandoned this academic training in order to be free to study solely from nature.

The present work was painted along the banks of the river Lys (Leie) in Belgium, the setting of many of Claus' most important works (see also lot 246). Claus settled in Astène, outside Ghent, on the banks of the Lys in an old hunting pavilion in 1883. It was here that he really focused his attention on painting country life en plein air. The subject matter and painterly technique of Maisons au bord de la Lys situate it early in Claus' career, and it was probably painted shortly after his move to Astène, when he was strongly influenced by the Naturalist aesthetic and the work of Bastien-Lepage.