Footnotes

• PROVENANCE
  Marguerite Freson-Khnopff, the artist's sister, Liège.
  Thence by descent to her daughter, Gilberte Thibaut de Maisières, Seneffe.
  Private collection, Milan.
  Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 31 March 1982, lot 168.
  Purchased from the above by the present owner.
  
  EXHIBITED
  Milan, Galleria del Levante, Fernand Khnopff, April-May 1970, no.29.
  Munich, Galleria del Levante, Symbolismus in Belgien, June 1970.
  
  LITERATURE
  L. Dumont-Wilden, Fernand Khnopff, Brussels, 1907, p.73.
  'Fernand Khnopff' in Notices biographiques et bibliographiques concernant les Membres, les Correspondants et les Associés de l'Académie de Belgique, 1907-1909, Brussels, 1909, p.755.
  M. Bierme, Les Artistes de la Pensée et du Sentiment, Brussels, 1911, p.4.
  J. Delville, 'Notice sur Fernand Khnopff', in Annuaire de l'Académie Royale des Sciences, des Lettres et des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1925, p.26.
  G. Deltour, 'Fernand Khnopff', in La Belgique d'Aujourd'hui, Berlin-Charlottenburg, n.d.
  R. L. Delevoy, C. de Croës and G. Ollinger-Zinque, Fernand Khnopff, Brussels, 1979, no.372 (illustrated p.330).
  
  Drawn in 1902, the present work is the only recorded preliminary study for the central figure in La force de l'homme éloigne le malheur, which was painted by Fernand Khnopff for the Salle des Mariages in the Hôtel de Ville of Saint-Gilles, Brussels. Commissioned by the city council to design the ceiling for this room between 1904 and 1914, the artist depicted four subjects within fifteen borders designed by the architect Albert Dumont, which included La grace de la femme attire le bonheur, Le Jour et la Nuit portant le cercle du zodiaque and Les quatre elements along with La force de l'homme éloigne le malheur.

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Category: Fine Art / Impressionist and Modern Art

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