Alfred Émile Léopold Steven was a Belgian painter, known for his paintings of elegant modern women. During the 1860s, Stevens became an immensely successful painter, known for his paintings of elegant modern women. His exhibits at the Salons in Paris and Brussels attracted favorable critical attention and buyers. An excellent example of his work during this time is La Dame en Rose or Lady in Pink, painted in 1867, which combines a view of a fashionably dressed woman in an interior with a detailed examination of Japanese objects, a fashionable taste called japonisme of which Stevens was an early enthusiast. His friends included e.g. Edouars Manet, Edgar Degas, and Berthe Morrisot. He was a regular in the group that gathered at the Café Guerbois in Paris.
In his late career, he also received several great professional tributes. In 1895, a large exhibition of his work was held in Brussels. In 1900, Stevens was honored by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris with the first retrospective exhibition ever given to a living artist. Supported by patrons led by the Comtesse de Greffulhe, it achieved social cachet as well as popular success.