Beschreibung:

Pastel and pencil on paper - Sig. 1907 - 33,6 x 24 cm
Exhibition "Exposition générale des Beaux-Arts" Hall du Cinquantenaire, Brussels 1907, nr. 632 Literature "Fernand Khnopff" in Notices biographiques et bibliographiques concernant les Membres, les Correspondants et les Associés de l'Académie de Belgique, p. 756 "Bilan de Salons" P. & G. Normand, Brussels 1907, p. 76 "Les Artistes de la Pensée et du Sentiment" M. Biermé, Brussels 1911, p. 4 "Notice sur Fernand Khnopff" J. Delville, in Annuaire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1925, p. 27 "Fernand Khnopff, Catalogue de l'oeuvre" R. Delevoy, C. de Croës & G. Ollinger-Zinque, Brussels 1987, nr. 437, p. 354, p. 355 reprod. Provenance coll. Barones Lambert private collection, Rome One only has oneself As a painter, sculptor, engraver and photographer, Khnopff was an all-round artist. His most famous subjects were the landscapes at Fosset, cityscapes at Bruges, symbolist compositions and portraits of children and ladies from the Brussels bourgeoisie. Like this portrait of Renée Lambert de Rotschild, daughter of the founder of the Bank Lambert and from the wealthy class. This tender portrait shows us a young girl dressed in white. She has clasped her hands in a caressing way. The whole looks controlled and reserved. All forms of direct contact are cut off. She looks at us, but does not address us. Rather, she seems to be staring into thin air. Physically she is there, but mentally she is not. "Ultimately he had to arrive at the symbol, this supreme union of sensation and feeling", says Emile Verhaeren about Fernand Khnopff (1886). For him it was inevitable that Khnopff turned against rationalism and realism and took refuge in his own inner world, one of dreams and stillness. He wanted to expose what lay behind the visible and tangible reality and this required internalization. It is therefore not surprising that the artist had a rather closed personality and liked to be on his own. Thus he proclaimed "On n'a que soi", one only has oneself. After all, isolation from the outside world was considered an important stage for those in search of spiritual purification.