Week 03 Flowers (not in a Bucket, in a Bouquet) (1061 – 1065) 02/18 – 02/20/2020 ID 1065

Fernand Khnopff Belgian Grembergen – Brussels 1858 - 1921

Hortensia , 1884

Oil on canvas

Khnopff’s sister and favorite model, Marguerite, may have posed for this painting in the family’s summer home in the Belgian countryside. Made when Khnopff was only in his mid-twenties, his inventive composition reconceives the tried-and-true subject of a woman reading in a domestic interior. As highlighted by the artist’s title, the blooming hydrangea (hortensia in French) is unusually prominent, boldly upstaging the sitter, the close-up, cropped viewpoint enhances the snapshot-like effect, akin to the work of French contemporaries Degas and Caillebotte. Such scenes of modern everyday life are rare for Khnopff, who became renowned for his mystical, otherworldly imagery.

Purchase, Bequest of Julia W. Emmons, by exchange, and Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Collection, Wolfe Fund, and Promised Gift of Charles Hack and the Hearn Family Trust, 2015 2015.263

From the Placard: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

<a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.metmuseum.org/</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff" rel="noreferrer nofollow">en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fernand_Khnopff</a> <a href="https://www.apollo-magazine.com/modern-art-belgian-fernand-khnopff/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">www.apollo-magazine.com/modern-art-belgian-fernand-khnopff/</a>