The owners are a couple. They both lost their hearts at the works of Claus. The painting went under the hammer at the auction in Bruges, where the man bought it for his wife. “The painting was a bit damaged so I took it to the restorer. He discovered that something was behind it.”
The work is currently in Deinze. There they will try to find out who that mysterious wife is in the coming months. “We know that Emile Claus also taught in Antwerp in 1880, also to young girls from the bourgeoisie. Maybe it’s one of them.”