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Artist or Maker: Belgian, 1867-1953
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Dimensions: 97 by 36 in.
246 by 92 cm
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Provenance: Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, Brussels
Sale, Sotheby's, London, 16 June 1993, lot 109, illustrated
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Literature: Maria-Luisa Frongia, Il simbolismo de Jean Delville, Bologna, 1978, pp. 78-80, illustrated plate XIII
Francine-Claire Legrand, Symbolism in Belgium, trans. Alistair Kennedy, Brussels, 1972, p.92
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Notes: Jean Delville was one of the most important figures in the Belgian Symbolist movement. Known for his poetry and philosophical writing as well as for his painting, Delville was an ardent follower of the mystical philosopher and art critic Joséphin Péladan. Delville exhibited and corresponded with other Symbolist painters including Fernand Khnopff and George Minne and exhibited his work at the Parisian Salons de la Rose + Croix.
Reacting against the prosaic realism that he believed had overtaken the French art world, Delville embraced various forms of symbolist idealism to endow his work with special emotional and intellectual significance. His imagery, much like that of Gustave Moreau, whom he fervently admired, draws on occultist and spiritualist traditions, uniting an ecstatic, mystical aesthetic with classical subject matter. Orphée aux enfers exemplifies Delville's distinctive style. Orpheus's graceful, androgynous body appears suspended between starry heavens and fiery hell, between the gaping jaws of Cerberus and a delicately rendered vision of Elysium. With a lyre in his left hand and a laurel wreath upon his brow, Orpheus becomes an emblem of heroic, or even divine, artistic endeavor. Bathed in a unique astral light, the scene embodies Delville's conception of ultimate beauty: "Understood in its metaphysical sense, Beauty is one of the manifestations of the Absolute Being. Emanating from the harmonious rays of the Divine plan, it crosses the intellectual plane to shine once again across the natural plane, where it darkens into matter."
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