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Executed in 1910.

signed Spilliaert and dated 1910 (lower right)

watercolour, pastel, gouache, silver paint and pen and ink on paper

PROVENANCE

Irmingarde Mortelmans-van Rossum, Brussels (by 1981)
Maurice Keitelman Gallery, Brussels
Acquired from the above by the present owner

EXHIBITED

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique & Otterloo, Rijksmuseum Kröller-Müller, Léon Spilliaert, 1981-82, no. 51, illustrated in the catalogue
Lisbon, Galeria de Exposiçones Temporàrias da Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Léon Spilliaert, 1984
Winnipeg, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Leon Spilliaert, 1985, no. 29
Newport, Harbor Art Museum, Flemish Expression: Representational Painting in the 20th Century, 1986-87, no. 96, illustrated in the catalogue
London, Entwistle Gallery, Léon Spilliaert, 1989, no. 13, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Antwerp, Campo & Campo Gallery, 100 Year Exhibition, 1997, no. 108, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Paris, Musée Galerie de la Seita, Spilliaert, OEuvres de jeunesse 1900-1918, 1997-98, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Antwerp, Galerie Rony Van de Velde, Leon Spilliaert, 1998-99, no. 76, illustrated in colour the catalogue
LITERATURE AND REFERENCES

Francine-Claire Legrand, Léon Spilliaert in zijn tijd, Lanoo, 1981, no. 94, illustrated p. 198
Xavier Tricot, Léon Spilliaert. De jaren 1900-1915, Anvers, 1996, illustrated p. 53
Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Léon Spiliiaert of de schoonheid van een wijs hart, Antwerp, 1998, no. 76, illustrated p. 214
CATALOGUE NOTE

The woman and the sea is the leitmotiv of Spillaert's oeuvre during 1908-13, the most fascinating period of his career. At times bathers, at others fishermen's wives, his mystical protagonists 'respond to the call of liberty emanating from the ocean's immensity. The apparition of the solitary bather evokes the sensual woman, of absolute freedom. She shares a privileged relationship with the sea through their similar temperaments. The water's fluidity inspires her like a temptation, she allows herself to be rocked by its undulations as she becomes a nereid' (A.A. Pannier in Léon Spilliaert (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., 1998-99, p. 159).

Femme nue tenant une coupe captures spectacularly the unique mood of Spilliaert's finest work. 'Solidtude', as Anne-Adriaens Pannier has noted, 'personified by a female silhouette lost in nature's immensity or abandoned in a desert-like environment, is a theme woven throughout [his] oeuvre' (A.A. Pannier in Léon Spilliaert (exhibition catalogue), Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Ostende, 1996, p. 20).

Spilliaert's expressive power during this period was achieved through a radical economy of means. 'Simplifying the structure of his vision, he looked to volume to create power, reducing expressivity to a simple language of line and contour. The stylised silhouettes thus created are profiled, monumentally, with large fields of monochrome in a neutral space formed of densely worked diagonals...' (ibid.). As in the present example, however, the apparent simplicity of the composition belies a complex and nuanced manipulation of various media.

FIG. 1, Léon Spilliaert, Les pieux, 1910................... TO COMPLETE