Futur


















Niveau médian

In 1898, Fernand Khnopff, a Belgium symbolist, was one of the guests of honour at the first Viennese Secession. He submitted sixteen paintings and four sculptures, including this Young Englishwoman, which the critic Ludwig Hevesi described as: "the ideal woman in white marble, tight-lipped... [...] highlighted with traces of colour of exquisite finesse. [...] The evanescent form harmonises perfectly with this colour treatment. There, too, we sense the sensuality, but Khnopff's sensuality has something vampirish about it."
As for certain martyrs, the statue's skull is sliced across the forehead. Could visitors to the 1898 exhibition see this detail? Hevesi talks about a scarf sprinkled with little blue stars. Some shots show the marble bust wearing a crown of leaves, while the oldest photograph shows the young Englishwoman with neither a scarf nor a crown. These days her forehead is adorned with a laurel wreath.
Although Khnopff gave the bust the features of his sister, Marguerite, to whom he was very close, the marble has the artist's own pale blue eyes. It may be the expression of a myth which fascinated the symbolist artists: that of the original hermaphrodite mentioned by Plato in The Banquet, a double being whom Zeus sliced in half in a moment of fury. The yearning for love and the desire for fusion were believed to have arisen from this mutilation. Under its misleading title, A Young Englishwoman perhaps expresses Khnopff's dream to be joined to Marguerite, his adored sister.
Resume
Object details
au verso à l'encre : FKHNOPFF
History - Provenance
- avant 1912 ? Salon de musique du Palais Stoclet à Bruxelles
- collection Lucien Feron, donné par son beau-père Adolphe Stoclet
- jusqu'en 2005, dans la collection Patrick Derom, Bruxelles, acquis de Lucien Feron
- 2006, achat par l'Etablissement public du musée d'Orsay (conseil scientifique de l'EPA M'O du 28/11/2005, commission des acquisitions de l'EPA M'O du 05/12/2005, conseil artistique des Musées nationaux du 14/12/2005, décision du président de l'EPA M'O du 05/01/2006)
Exhibitions
- Première Sécession - Gartenbaugesellschaft - Autriche, Vienne, 1898, cat.214 sous le titre Marmorbüste
- Cercle artistique - cercle artistique - Belgique, Termonde, 1899, cat. 123
- Sécession - organisme inconnu - Autriche, Vienne, 1900, cat. 420
- Summer Exhibition - The New Gallery - Royaume-Uni, Londres, 1903, cat. 432
- Le Salon - musée royal d'Art moderne - Belgique, Bruxelles, 1906, cat. 8
- Salon des beaux-arts - Kursaal - Belgique, Ostende, 1906, cat. 87
- Fernand Khnopff 1858-1921 - musée des Arts décoratifs - France, Paris, 1979, cat. 102
- Fernand Khnopff 1858-1921 - musées royaux des Beaux-Arts - Belgique, Bruxelles, 1980, cat. 102
- Fernand Khnopff 1858-1921 - Hamburger Kunsthalle - Allemagne, Hambourg, 1980, cat. 102
- Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) - musées royaux des Beaux-Arts - Belgique, Bruxelles, 2004, cat. 103
- 6 Symbolist Works - Patrick Derom Gallery - Etats-Unis, New York, 2005, p. 24-31
- Sade. Attaquer le soleil. - musée d'Orsay - France, Paris, 2014-2015, p.327
- Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921). Le maître de l’énigme - Petit Palais - Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris - France, Paris, 2018-2019, p.41
Sources
-
Pingeot, Anne, 48/14 La revue du Musée d'Orsay, "Un Morceau du palais Stoclet au musée d'Orsay", Paris, Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, p. 34-41 et couv.
-
(dir.) Cogeval, Guy, Le Musée d'Orsay à 360 degrés, Paris, Skira ; Flammarion ; Musée d'Orsay, 2013, p. 266, texte de Anne Pingeot
-
Horner, Nadège, Répertoire sommaire des sculptures polychromes de la 2e moitié du XIXe siècle conservées dans les collections publiques françaises ; En couleurs, la sculpture polychrome en France, 1850-1910, Paris, Hazan - Musée d'Orsay, 2018, p.206
Categories
About this object record
Suggestion
Do you have a question where you have additional knowledge about this work? You can write to us to suggest improvements to the file.
Make a suggestion