Fernand Khnopff

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Description

Fernand Khnopff
PORTRAIT DE FEMME
signed with the monogram (lower left)
coloured crayon, charcoal, pastel and white chalk on paper laid down on card
image size: 12.4 by 7cm., 4 7/8 by 2 3/4 in.
card size: 13.9 by 8.5cm., 5 1/2 by 3 3/8 in.

Provenance

Acquired by the grandfather of the present owner, probably in Brussels in the 1940s

Literature

Walther Gensel, Fünfundsiebzig Jahre Belgischer Malerei. II, in Die Kunst für Alle, Munich, 1906, vol. XXI, p. 188, no. 8, illustrated
Robert Delevoy, Catherine de Croës and Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque, Fernand Khnopff, Catalogue raisonné de l'œuvre, Brussels, 1987, p. 351, no. 423, illustrated

Catalogue Note

Fernand Khnopff was one of the front-runners of avant-garde art in Belgium and played a pivotal role during the 1880s. In 1877 he went to Paris and studied the work of Moreau and Delacroix. Other great influences on his work were the Pre-Raphaelites in England, particularly Burne-Jones and Rossetti, and the work of Symbolist writers such as Georges Rodenbach. He was one of the founding members of Les XX in 1883, yet remained solitary in his work.

The artistic quest which inspired his pictures was summed up by the artist himself: 'I always meditate over my subjects for a long time before attempting to translate them... I do not belong to those who get amusement from a stroke of the pencil made haphazardly. I want precision. I always have a goal from which nothing can distract me. In order not to deviate despite myself, I will often pick up a pen to describe my thoughts in minute detail. Thus armed, I am ready to translate my vision' (quoted in Michel Draguet, Khnopff, Brussels, 1995, p. 191).

According to Madame Ollinger-Zinque, the frame of the present work was probably designed by the artist. It is rare that works by Khnopff still have the original frames which relate symbolically to the work itself. The frame's proportions turn the image itself into a kind of inner sanctum, underlining the mystery and sacredness of the figure within. The frame displays the hallmarks of the Aesthetic movement with its combination of classical and decorative motifs.

FIG. I, the present work in its frame