Atelier de l'artiste

Collection Marguerite Freson-Khnopff, sœur de l’artiste, Liège

Collection Thibaut de Maisières, Seneffe, selon une étiquette au verso

Galerie HK fine paintings, Bruxelles

Acquis auprès de cette dernière par l'actuel propriétaire le 11 janvier 2018

Collection Louis Grandchamp des Raux

Namur, Musée Félicien Rops, Impressions symbolistes – Edmond Deman, éditeur d’art, janvier – mai 2011, n° 2, reproduit p. 58

R. L. Delevoy, C. de Croës et G. Ollinger-Zinque, Fernand Khnopff, Catalogue de l’œuvre, Lebeer Hossmann Editions, Bruxelles, La Bibliothèque des arts, Paris, 2ème édition, 1987, n°287, reproduit p. 301-302

M. Draguet, Khnopff ou l’ambigu poétique, Gand, Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, 1995, n°198, reproduit p. 194

A leading figure of Belgian Symbolism, Fernand Khnopff was an enigmatic and unique artist with a complex personality. A painter, draughtsman, engraver and sculptor, his work explores themes of melancholy, introspection and the escape from reality. His dreamlike and mysterious visions are symptomatic of a society undergoing profound change and reflect the questions of a generation marked by doubt.

Our canvas is a preparatory study for La Défiance, which was exhibited for the first time at the Salon de la Rose-Croix in Paris the year it was painted in 1897 (N°85), then at the Vienna Secession the following year (N°223). The work was also exhibited twice in 1899, in Termonde and in Brussels. Today considered lost, the painting is known thanks to an old photograph and two preparatory studies: a drawing¹ and the present work, both focused on the framing of the face within the composition. The face itself serves as an allegory of defiance. It sits atop a circular object, which here appears fragmented but which is fully visible in the final work. For Fernand Khnopff, the circle was an instrument of contemplation: the artist often found inspiration by standing in the centre of the magic circle he had drawn directly on the floor of the studio in his house, a place known as the “Temple de Moi”.

However, when associated with the theme of defiance, this same image can also evoke a shield, a symbol of protection. 

Fernand Khnopff’s work in the field of portraiture constitutes a well-known and much-appreciated aspect of his oeuvre. Here, the artist draws inspiration from a model photographed by his friend Albert Édouard Drains, known as Alexandre, whose photographic prints he used on several occasions, heightening them with pencil, chalk or watercolour to create new works². Although Khnopff often used his sister Marguerite as a model – who, incidentally, owned this painting and with whom he shared a unique bond – the face depicted here is that of Lily Maquet, a young Englishwoman whose family lived in Brussels. The way in which it is framed, cropped above the eyebrows and at the chin, draws attention to the model’s deep gaze and her closed mouth. 

In this enigmatic portrait, the painter seems to be exploring her very soul. In the final version, the figure’s eyes are just below the top edge of the frame, whilst the shield is positioned beneath her lips, echoing the tight framing found in the study. This shield, adorned with indecipherable symbols, lends the figure a symbolic quality whose meaning eludes the viewer, inviting silent and mystical contemplation. Michel Draguet sees in it an image that “crystallises in a suspended moment detached from all action, yet rich in possibilities”, “a figure, condemned never to change, [who] appears sequestered in her ideal solitude”³.

1.      Fernand Khnopff, Etude pour la Défiance, pencil and pastel on paper, 11 x 27 cm, signed bottom right, Brussels, private collection (Robert L. Delevoy, Catherine de Croës et Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque, Fernand Khnopff, catalogue de l’œuvre, Bruxelles, Paris, 2^nd edition, 1987, n° 286).

2.      Several such works are known, see : sale Paris, Christie’s, 23 October 2020, lot 144 and sale Paris, Artcurial, Collection Gérard Lévy, Rêveries Fin-de-Siècle, 11 February 2025, n° 7.

3.      Michel Draguet, Khnopff ou l’ambigu poétique, Ghent, Snoeck-Ducaju & Zoon, 1995, p. 195.