Emma de Liedekerke 

Emma de Liedekerke, who became Comtesse Guy de Beaufort through her marriage, was a Belgian aristocrat of the twentieth century. Born on 22 March 1896 in London, she belonged to the noble house of Liedekerke, a Belgian comital family since 1816. She moved within Belgian aristocratic circles, in a context in which culture, literature, and the arts held an important place, notably through patronage and the enlightened amateur practice of the arts.

Her artistic activity is sparsely documented and remained confined to the private sphere. She is nevertheless associated with a small group of Symbolist drawings executed around 1915–1916, when she was approximately nineteen to twenty years old. These works reflect a marked sensitivity to the Symbolist aesthetic, still widely present in Belgium at that time, as well as an artistic training consistent with the customs of her milieu, possibly acquired in an atelier.

These drawings are generally presented as the work of a student and in the style of Fernand Khnopff, without it being possible to establish a direct or documented attribution to a specific course of instruction. Emma de Liedekerke’s artistic output remained strictly private until her death in 1985.