BRUSSELS, BELGIUM.- The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium have recently bought The Annunciation (133 x 168 cm, inv. 12161), a beautiful painting with the monogram of Gérard de Lairesse (Liège, 1640 - Amsterdam, 1711). This painting belonged formerly to the collection of the Princes of Hohenzollern but its dimensions and monumental composition do rather think that it originally was a piece of altar. We are immediately impressed by the originality with which the painter presents this biblical episod. The warm and luminous colours which characterize the left side of the canvas where the divine messenger appears form a striking contrast with the cold and bleak tones which are used to present the land space that surrounds he Virgin. This appears like a young shy woman whose attitude nevertheless doesn’t lack a certain ambiguity. The few objects gathered before her, the linen basket, the oak table covered by a tablecloth, which further stress this terrestrial aspect, are masterly painted.