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Exhibited:
Paris, Palais du Champ de Mars, Exposition Universelle , 1889, no. 265 (no. 137 in the exh. cat.)
Brussels, Musée d'Art Moderne, Les XX , 1890, no. 4
London, Hanover Gallery, Fernand Khnopff , 1890, no. 5
Munich, Secession, 1894, no. 337 (illustrated as no. 122 in the exh. cat.)
Liège, Casino Gréty, L'oeuvre artistique , 1895, no. 381
Mons, Triénnale , 1896, no. 722 (no. 124 in the exh. cat.)
Termonde, Cercle artistique , 1899, no. 74 (no. 124 in the exh. cat.)
Verviers, Exposition d'Art et d'Art décoratif , 1901, no. 209, (no. 124 in the exh. cat.)
Brussels, Hall du Cinquantenaire, Exposition générale des Beaux-Arts , no. 800, illustrated in the catalogue
Budapest, Teli Nemzetközi Kiallitas 1908-09 , 1908-1909, no. 587
Venice, Biennale , 1909, no. 42 (no. 137 in the exh. cat.)
Brussels, Palais du Cinquantenaire, Salon de Printemps , 1911, no. 177
Liège, Journal de Liège, Fernand Khnopff , 1912, no. 50
Scheveningen, Kunsthandel Arti, Fernand Khnopff , 1913, no. 24 (no. 124 in the exh. cat.)
Paris, Brussels, Hamburg, Rétrospective Fernand Khnopff , 1979-1980, no. 30
Yamanashi, Kamura, Mié, Fernand Khnopff, Gustave Moreau et le Symbolisme , 1984-85, no. 33
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Khnopff et ses rapports avec la Sécession viennoise , 1987, pp. 97-99, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Himeji, Nagoya, Yamanashi, Fernand Khnopff 1858-1921 , 1990, no. 16, pp. 85-86, illustrated in the catalogue
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique; Salzburg, Museum der Moderne - Rupertinum & Boston, McMullen Museum of Art, 2004, Rétrospective Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) , no. 177, p. 242, illustrated in the catalogue
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Literature: Walter Shaw & Sparrow, 'Fernand Khnopff', The Magazine of Art, London, December 1890, pp. 41 & 43, illustrated
E. Demolder, 'Chronique artistique. Le Salon des XX', La Société Nouvelle, Paris & Brussels, 1890, p. 112
Walter Shaw & Sparrow, 'English Art and M. Fernand Khnopff', The Studio, London, March 1894, vol. II, pp. 202 & 207, no. 12, illustrated
G. Voss, 'Die Ausstellung der Münchener Sezession im Sommer 1894', II, Die Kunst für Alle, Munich, 15 July 1894, vol. IX, p. 315, no. 20, illustrated
Anonymous, 'Fernand Khnopff', Wochen Berichte, Berlin, 31 August 1895, p. 279, no. 40
Pol de Mont, 'Fernand Khnopff', Elsevier's Geillustreerd Maandschrift, Amsterdam, 1896, vol. XI, pp. 499, 500 & 503, no. 6
Gabriel Mourey, 'Fernand Khnopff', La Revue Illustré, Paris, 1 October 1898, n.p.
H. Bahr, 'Fernand Khnopff', Ver Sacrum, Vienna, December 1898, p. 14, no. XII, illustrated
Pol de Mont, 'Fernand Khnopff', Het Schildersboek, Amsterdam, 1901, pp. 151-152 & 154
Vittorio Pica, 'Artisti contemporanei: Fernand Khnopff', Emporium, Bergamo, September 1902, vol. XVI, p. 179, no. 93
Margherita G. Sarfatti, 'Profili d'Artisti. Fernand Khnopff', Il Rinascimento, Milan, April 1906, p. 62
Henri Hymans, Belgische Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1906, p. 196, fig. 144, illustrated
Karel de Woestyne, 'Brusselsche Kunst', Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, Rotterdam, 8 February 1907
P. & G. Normand, Bilan de Salons, Brussels, 1907, p. 78
L. Tombu, Peintres et Sculpteurs belges à l'Aube du XXe Siècle, Liège, 1907, p. 94
Louis Dumont & Wilden, Fernand Khnopff, Brussels, 1907, pp. 50 & 67, illustrated opposite p. 16
Anonymous, 'Les Artistes belges à Venise', L'Art Moderne, Brussels, 5 December 1909, p. 386, no. 48
Vittorio Pica, La Galleria d'Arte Moderna di Venezia, Bergamo, 1909, p. 171
Marie Biermé, Les Artistes de la pensée et du sentiment, Brussels, 1911, p. 34
Georges Verdavainne, 'Fernand Khnopff', Le Home, Brussels, 31 January 1913, no. 1, n.p.
Anonymous, 'Fernand Khnopff', Nieuwe Rotterdamsche Courant, Rotterdam, 3 March 1913
Gustave Vanzype, preface to the sale catalogue Vente Collection Eugène Marlier, Brussels, 1920, p. 16
Paul Errera, 'En Souvenir de Fernand Khnopff', Revue de l'Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, December 1921-January 1922, p. 4, no. 3-4
Nestor Eemans, Fernand Khnopff, Antwerp, 1950, no. 124, pl. 23, as La Sphinge
Francine Claire Legrand, 'Fernand Khnopff - Perfect Symbolist', Apollo, London, April 1967, p. 284, no. 62
Philippe Mertens, 'Fernand Khnopff', in Vlaanderen, Ostende, May-June 1968, p. 158, no. 99
P.W. Guenther, Stefan George und die bildenden Künste, Austin, 1968, p. 218
Philippe Jullian, Esthètes et magiciens, Paris, 1969, p. 202
Francine Claire Legrand, Le Symbolisme en Belgique, Brussels, 1971, pp. 69, 73 & 219, no. 124, pl. 116, illustrated
Mizue, Tokyo, 1973, p. 37, no. 818, illustrated
Christian Nebehay, Ver sacrum. 1898-1903, Vienna, 1975, p. 106, illustrated
Robert Pincus & Witten, Occult Symbolism in France, New York & London, 1976, p. 252, no. 124, pl. 15, illustrated, as Le Sphinge
W.R. Olander, 'Fernand Khnopff's Art or The Caresses', Arts Magazine, New York, June 1977, pp. 118-120, fig. 10, illustrated
Robert L. Delevoy, Catherine de Croës & Gisele Ollinger-Zinque, Fernand Khnopff, Catalogue de l'oeuvre, Brussels, 1987, pp. 167-172 & 245, no. 122, illustrated
Stephen H. Goddard ed., Les XX and the Belgian Avant Garde, Kansas, 1992, p. 235, mentioned
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Notes: Executed in 1889, Knopff's dedication of the work to his friend, the poet Emile Verhaeren, reflects the sense of debt that he felt towards the writer. Verhaeren was one of the great driving forces behind Symbolism in Belgium. A prominent member of Les XX, the Brussels based Symbolist association of artists, Verhaeren gave his support to a wide range of artists including Odilon Redon (lots 257-259), from whom he commissioned frontispieces for three different publications at the end of the 1880s. Khnopff himself had received praise and encouragement for his work from Verhaeren in a number of articles that Verhaeren had written, and Khnopff almost certainly intended the present composition to pay tribute to Verhaeren's support. The standing figure can be interpreted as Verhaeren; the guardian angel of Symbolism he wears a helmet and armour to ward off the movement's detractors. His left hand rests on the head of the Sphinx the personification of Symbolism, who lies patiently by his side.
Works such as Avec Verhaeren. Un Ange aimed to explore 'the secret soul of things', transporting the viewer into an imaginary world of introspection and contemplation. Technically highly accomplished, ethereal and enigmatic, the protagonists of Un Ange are key figures in the artist's unique iconography of the self. Their ambiguity points up the exquisite secrecy in which Khnopff cloaked his oeuvre. 'Since I have been classed once and for all a Symbolist', he told Ludwig Hervesi in 1898, 'people will go to great length to find a hidden meaning in everything I do' (quoted in Delevoy, de Croës and Ollinger-Zinque, Fernand Khnopff, Brussels, 1987, p. 178).
Khnopff's sphinxes embody the struggle between the temptation of spiritual idealism and sensuality. Similarly to Gustave Moreau, whose work Khnopff had seen in Paris and greatly admired, Khnopff's works often show the contest between the sphinx and saint or hero. The present work depicts a sphinx with the body of a tiger and the head of a woman vanquished by an androgynous warrior angel. The two figures are silhouetted against a starry sky, and stand on a temple like structure. A panel with something resembling cabalistic letters or pseudo-hieroglyphs, is set into the colonnade evoking ancient cults. The enigmatic inscriptions were probably inspired by Athanasius Kirchner and his book Oedipus Aegyptianus (Lyons, 1652-54). Kirchner was part of the Renaissance tradition interpreting Egyptian hieroglyphs as Neo-platonic symbols containing hidden divine truths. The sphinx exudes an animal sexuality, while the armoured angel denies the body. For the moment, the angel keeps the animal in check.
The gender ambiguity in the present work, as well as the depiction of the fatal struggle between sensuality and life of heroic idealism anticipates Khnopff's most acclaimed oil, Des Caresses of 1896. Khnopff's maxim 'My soul is alone and nothing influences it. It is like glass enclosed in silence, completely devoted to its interior spectacle' (quoted by Verhaeren in his memoirs) is expressed in the introspective, meditative aspect of the present work, whose stillness is reminiscent of Baudelaire's poem La Beauté (see introductory note to Khnopff).
