Honorary Plaque Medal from the City of Ghent to Alice Keelhoff

This plaque by Geo Verbanck shows on the front a girl presenting a flower basket to a young woman with a crown of thorns. At the bottom is the inscription 1914-18. The reverse shows that the plaque was given to Alice Keelhoff in gratitude of the city of Ghent. Alice Keelhoff was a Belgian artist born in Ghent in 1896 and died in 1983. She was the second cousin of artist François Keelhoff and trained at the Academy in Liège (under Jacques Ochs), at the Académie Julian and at the Grande Chaumière in Paris. After making her debut at the age of 33, she made a name for herself in the Ghent region as a draughtswoman and painter of portraits, figures, nudes, interiors, animals, flowers and still lifes. She loved backlighting effects and her works were bathed in an intimate atmosphere.