Oil on canvas showing a view of a river.  The painting is signed by the artist Charles Houben (1871 - 1931) and mounted in an attractive filt frame of the period - painted circa 1920

Charles Houben studied painting in Liège, then architecture in Brussels. He studied under Alfred Bastien for painting and Jef Lambeaux for sculpture. He married Jane Kufferath , violinist and daughter of Maurice Kufferath , director of the Royal Theater of La Monnaieand a violinist too. In Brussels, in 1924 he had his house/workshop built by Ribaucourt, at 20 rue Alphonse Renard, which is now part of the architectural heritage.

He painted Flanders and the far north of Europe, France - the Oise and the Seine , Italy, Tunisia and Morocco . Since his death in 1931, only one exhibition had been held: the retrospective of his work, in Brussels in1932.

In 2012, an exhibition was held with Pierre Bonnard , Marc Chagall , Maurice Denis , Amedeo Modigliani , Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso in Metz in the Center Pompidou-Metz.

Several of his works today belong to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium and the Museum of Fine Arts of Liège .

Date of manufacture: 1920