This is one of the largest and most powerful pastels\never seen from William Degouve de Nuncques. The symbolist content is so\nvigorous that it belongs to the heart of the Belgian Symbolist movement, without equivalent about the subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Being born into a wealthy,\naristocratic family, Degouve de Nuncques was able to indulge his interests in\npainting and music without material constraints. Although self-taught, he was\nadvised by Jan Toorop, with whom he shared a studio, and later lived with the\noff-screen artist, Henry de Groux. In 1894 he married Juliette Massin, a\npainter and sister-in-law of the influential Symbolist poet Emile Verhaeren,\nwho became a close friend and introduced him to the circle of Symbolist poets.\nVerhaeren’s poetry and Degouve’s art shared many concerns, and both essentially\nsought to transfigure reality in the sense that it affords a view of the\ninvisible. Degouve in particular wanted to create works that transfigure the\neveryday and metamorphose the real into something magic and surreal. He\nbelonged to the Belgian avant-garde group Les XX<\/em> and later exhibited at\nthe Libre Esth\u00e9tique<\/em>. A regular exhibitor in Paris, Degouve de Nuncques\nwas championed by Puvis de Chavannes and Maurice Denis. His paintings are\nconsidered to have been a significant influence on Surrealism and the paintings\nof Ren\u00e9 Magritte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As far as the date is concerned, the pastel is dated\n\u201c9\u201d with another figure that seems a \u201c4\u201d. Most of Degouve works are dated with only\ntwo figures, lower right; starting by 9 for the works of the 19th<\/sup>\ncentury and of course 0, 1 ore 2 for the 20th<\/sup> century pieces. We do\nincline for the \u201c94\u201d date. The technique of pastel and the style are here very\nclose to other pastel works of this period, especially this way of representing\ntrees and forests, i.e. the Int\u00e9rieur de\nFor\u00eat<\/em> (dated 94, Nancy, Mus\u00e9e de l\u2019Ecole de Nancy), Le Cygne Noir<\/em> (dated 95, Otterlo, Kr\u00f6ller-M\u00fcller Museum) and A Venise<\/em> (dated 95, Otterlo). After\n1899-1900, Degouve will not work with pastel anymore, except for very rare\nexceptions much lighter on paper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The subject area is typical for Degouve in the years\n94-98 and the link to the Symbolist poetry is obvious through the \u201cTrilogie noire<\/em>\u201d of Verhaeren (Soirs<\/em> (1887), D\u00e9bacles<\/em> (88) and Flambeaux\nnoirs<\/em> (91)), poems by Maeterlinck and Rodenbach. Also, by Degouve, the\npainter is never far away from the poet and his own poems could be also adduced\nfor the present composition. Although our researches continue, we have not been\nable yet to link the present subject to an identified poem or a theatre by\nDegouve or by the three others authors. Everything is here: nocturne\natmosphere, macabre scene, unclear meaning, opposition between dark and light\nat dawn of the day, the light of the sun being relegated in the background. The\nchromasticism of nocturne as a musical model used by Debussy, Faur\u00e9 and d\u2019Indy is\nevident.\n\nIt\nis worth mentioning that the present work was in Degouve\u2019s studio and in the\nhands of his wife up to 1948. It was bought by the father of the current owner,\nso the provenance is back to its creation. It is also described in the 1935\nlist of the Degouve works known in collections.\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This is one of the largest and most powerful pastels ever seen from William Degouve de Nuncques. The symbolist content is so vigorous that it belongs to the heart of the Belgian Symbolist movement, without equivalent about the subject. Being born into a wealthy, aristocratic family, Degouve de Nuncques was able to indulge his interests … Continue reading \u00ab\u00a0William de Degouve de Nuncques\u00a0\u00bb<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2970,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[15],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=2980"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions\/"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2986,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2980\/revisions\/2986\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2970\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=2980"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=2980"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gillisgoldman.com\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=2980"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}