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Dimensions: 72 by 92cm., 28½ by 36in.

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Provenance: Galerie Matignon, Paris
Purchased from the above by the present owner

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Notes: Painted in 1901.

Degouve de Nunques was at the heart of the Belgian Symbolist movement. He belonged to the Belgian avant-garde group Les XX and later exhibited at the Libre Esthétique. Being born into a wealthy, aristocratic family, Degouve de Nunques was able to indulge his interests in painting and music without material constraints. Although self-taught, he was advised by Jan Toorop, with whom he shared a studio, and later lived with Henry Degroux (lot 263). In 1894 he married Juliette Massin, a painter and sister-in-law of the influential Symbolist poet Emile Verhaeren, who became a close friend and introduced him to the circle of Symbolist poets. Verhaeren's poetry and Degouve's art shared many concerns, and both essentially sought to transfigure reality in the sense that it affords a view of the invisible. Degouve in particular wanted to create works that transfigure the everyday and metamorphose the real into something magic and surreal. A regular exhibitor in Paris, Degouve de Nunques was championed by Puvis de Chavannes and Maurice Denis. His paintings are considered to have been an important influence on Surrealism and the paintings of Réné Magritte.