Footnotes

Provenance
Waldemar Thiesen, Brazil.
Thence by descent.

Exhibited
Paris, Salon des Artistes Français, 1904, no. 1247.

Literature
Georges Bal, 'Au jour le jour dans les ateliers. M. E. Maxence prépare pour le Salon deux tableaux, Vers l'Idéal et Chant du soir', The New York Herald, 7 April 1904, p. 5.
Camille Le Senne, 'La Musique et le théâtre aux Salons du Grand-Palais', Le Ménestrel, 22 May 1904, p. 164.
Camille Le Senne, 'Le Salon des Artistes Français', Revue théâtrale, 1904, p. 253.
Joséphin Péladan, 'Le Salon des Artistes Français', Revue hebdomadaire, May 1904, p. 13.
Édouard Gauthier, 'Les Salons', La Revue théâtrale, 1904, p. 252.
Vera Campbell [Lady Colin Campbell], 'The Paris Salon', The Art Journal, 1904, pp. 211-212.
Maurice Hamel, Salons de 1904 Paris, Goupil, 1904, p. 51.
Anonyme, 'Les Salons de 1904. Société des artistes Français', Paris illustré. Le Salon, 18 June 1904, Paris, Goupil, p. 16.
R. de Félice, 'L'art décoratif', L'Art décoratif, 1905, p. 232.
Cyrille Sciama, 'Edgard Maxence, les dernières fleurs du symbolisme', dans Edgard Maxence 1871-1954 les dernières fleurs du symbolisme, cat. exp., Nantes, musée des Beaux-Arts ; Douai, musée de la Chartreuse, 2010, p. 28.


Born in Nantes, Edgard Maxence studied under Élie Delaunay and Gustave Moreau at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he was a contemporary of artists such as Henri Evenepoel, Jules Flandrin, Albert Marquet, Henri Matisse, Léon Printemps and Georges Rouault. He started exhibiting his work in 1894 at the Salon des Artistes Français. Although he worked in a solitary fashion, he was fully aligned with the Symbolist movement through his taste for an idealised past and a sense of the mysterious. For several decades, he painted medieval scenes, women praying or playing musical instruments in mysterious forests or churches. He experimented with different media -tempera, gold backgrounds, wax paint mixed with oil on repeatedly sanded wood panels - which lent his works a sacred, icon-like quality.

Maxence participated in the Salon de la Rose+Croix organized by Joséphin Péladan from 1895 to 1897. He also painted beautiful portraits and received numerous honours (a gold medal at the 1900 Exposition Universelle, the title of Officer of the Legion of Honor in 1927, and membership in the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1924). However, he remained faithful to his idealistic visions, captivating in their stillness and sense of unreality, until his death.

Before its presentation at the 1904 Salon, the present painting was described by a journalist from the New York Herald who visited Edgard Maxence's studio: 'They walk hand in hand, brushing aside branches heavy with golden fruits that, ripened in the sacred grove, cascade around them... They are indeed dreamlike figures... and in both, their gazes have the intensity of life and the depth of infinity.' The journalist also commented on the treatment of the faces and their sensuality, highlighting one of Maxence's defining characteristics: the fusion of an idealised subject with the realistic depiction of physiognomies. Joséphin Péladan similarly noted 'the precision of the features and their commanding clarity', observations echoed by Lady Campbell in her review 'The Paris Salon'.

Vers l'Idéal is a dazzling demonstration of Maxence's technical mastery and Symbolist vision. Its chromatic richness, transparency effects, interplay of light, and virtuosity in the rendering of jewellery and fabrics ('liberty' textiles with 'fading tones for aesthetes of both sexes' according to Camille Le Senne) create a singular impression. Realism and stillness, suspended gestures, and the intensity of gazes directed toward an elevated, unseen space evoke an extraordinary sense of magic. The significant critical acclaim this work received at its exhibition attests to its impact on the public. Technical perfection and hypnotic emotion captivated viewers, revealing the essence of Maxence's art.

Far from the mist and vagueness favoured by some Symbolists, Maxence conjured otherworldly realms through the commanding presence of his models. This hyperrealism, which paradoxically led to the imaginary, was a hallmark of his work, but rarely achieved such consummate results. No critic described the scene as a simple union of characters, despite their strikingly modern faces. Camille Le Senne referred to it as 'transcendental psychology', while a journalist from Le Paris Illustré noted how the work would appeal to 'melancholic souls repelled by the vision of present realities, who seek from art an escape from today's sorrowful world into the realm of dreams'.

Indeed, fleeing the contemporary world and invoking a spiritual universe is a fundamental criterion of the Symbolist movement. Vers l'Idéal, a work that has not been exhibited or reproduced for over a century, is undoubtedly a rediscovered masterpiece of Edgard Maxence.

We are grateful to Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, Ph.D for his assistance in cataloguing this lot.