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Lot Essay
The present four works are highly finished preparatory studies for Fernand Khnopff's ceiling designs for the marriage hall at the Saint-Gilles Town Hall in Brussels. The Four elements, which were later executed in oil between 1904-14, formed one of four subjects in a design which also included La grâce de la femme apporte le bonheur , La nuit et le jour qui portent le cercle du zodiaque and La force de l'homme garde le malheur à distance.
The present works exhibit many of the qualities which Albert Aurier defined as necessary for a Symbolist work when he wrote:
'a work of art ...must be:
1) 'ideist', since its unique ideal is to express the Idea.
2) 'symbolist', since it expresses the Idea by means of forms.
3) 'synthetic, since it arranges these forms or signes in order to facilitate general comprehension..." (A. Aurier, 'Paul Gauguin ou le Symbolisme en peinture', in Mercure de France)
In particular, they convey Khnopff's search for a way of uniting form and content whilst at the same time endeavouring to raise his art to a level of transcendent idealism. The elements, each personified by the same figure of a woman holding an illustrative medallion, are analogous but all are distinguishable by thier surrounding elemental substance. It is the swirling, organic depiction of each matter, used by Khnopff to express the inexpressible, which gives the designs their mysticism.
For Khnopff, the conception of a work was paramount to its successful completion and this is particularly visible in the present works:
'I always meditate over my subjects for a long time before attempting to translate them... I do not belong to those who get amusement form a stroke of the pencil made haphazardly. I want precision' (Michel Draguet, Khnopff, Brussels, 1995, p. 191).
The present works exhibit many of the qualities which Albert Aurier defined as necessary for a Symbolist work when he wrote:
'a work of art ...must be:
1) 'ideist', since its unique ideal is to express the Idea.
2) 'symbolist', since it expresses the Idea by means of forms.
3) 'synthetic, since it arranges these forms or signes in order to facilitate general comprehension..." (A. Aurier, 'Paul Gauguin ou le Symbolisme en peinture', in Mercure de France)
In particular, they convey Khnopff's search for a way of uniting form and content whilst at the same time endeavouring to raise his art to a level of transcendent idealism. The elements, each personified by the same figure of a woman holding an illustrative medallion, are analogous but all are distinguishable by thier surrounding elemental substance. It is the swirling, organic depiction of each matter, used by Khnopff to express the inexpressible, which gives the designs their mysticism.
For Khnopff, the conception of a work was paramount to its successful completion and this is particularly visible in the present works:
'I always meditate over my subjects for a long time before attempting to translate them... I do not belong to those who get amusement form a stroke of the pencil made haphazardly. I want precision' (Michel Draguet, Khnopff, Brussels, 1995, p. 191).