Adèle Kindt was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

 painter

Painting

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...

, the leading female painter of the 1820s to 1840s.

Born in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, into a family which produced many female artists, Marie-Adélaïde Kindt was trained in drawing by engraver Antoine Cardon

Antoine Cardon

Antoine-Alexandre-Joseph Cardon , also known as Cardon the elder to distinguish him from his son, was a Belgian painter, portraitist and engraver, born an Austrian due to Brussels then being in the Austrian Netherlands...

. She studied painting under François-Joseph Navez

François-Joseph Navez

François-Joseph Navez was a Belgian neo-classical painter.A pupil of Jacques-Louis David, he spent five years in Italy between 1817 and 1822. Between 1835 and 1862 he was the director of the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.He was a very successful portrait painter...

 and was encouraged by Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David

Jacques-Louis David was an influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era...

.

Although trained as a neoclassicist

Neoclassicism

Neoclassicism is the name given to Western movements in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that draw inspiration from the "classical" art and culture of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome...

, Kindt's work was informed by Romanticism

Romanticism

Romanticism was an artistic, literary and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Europe, and gained strength in reaction to the Industrial Revolution...

. Her early works included many historical scenes. Her Épisode des journées de septembre 1830, portraying a scene from the Belgian Revolution

Belgian Revolution

The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....

 of 1830, is considered her masterpiece and is on display in the Brussels city museum on the Grand Place

Grand Place

The Grand Place or Grote Markt is the central square of Brussels. It is surrounded by guildhalls, the city's Town Hall, and the Breadhouse . The square is the most important tourist destination and most memorable landmark in Brussels, along with the Atomium and Manneken Pis...

After the 1840s, Kindt painted much less ambitious works, largely portraiture and generic scenes, adapting her style to suit the changing tastes of the public, but never recaptured the success of her early career. She died in Schaarbeek

Schaarbeek

Schaerbeek or Schaarbeek is one of the nineteen municipalities located in the Brussels-Capital Region of Belgium. The first mention of the name was Scarenbecca, recorded in a document from the Bishop of Cambrai in 1120...

.

Her younger sisters Clara and Laurence were landscape painters, as was her sister-in-law Isabelle Kindt-Van Assche.