The Friendly Gossips

Eugene de Blaas was born in Italy to Austrian parents. His father Karl von Blaas was an accomplished and a noted portrait painter of Roman society, and his brother Julius de Blaas was a painter of animal and military scenes in Vienna. Eugene de Blaas enjoyed a fruitful career during his lifetime and settled in Venice, becoming a professor at the Academy, a position which had been held by his father Karl. Eugene's paintings of beautiful Italian women at work and in the company of admiring suitors were especially sought after by British collectors. He exhibited his works at the Royal Academy in London from 1875 to 1892, as well as the Grafton Gallery and the New Gallery.