Georges de FEURE (Paris, 1868 - 1943) In the dune Watercolour and gouache Signed 'DEFEURE' lower right Several labels on verso (Tears and dent on the upper right edge) In the dune, gouache watercolour, signed, by G. de Feure 10.63 x 17.13 in. 27.0 x 43.5 cm Provenance: Gérard Lévy Collection ; Then by descent Exhibitions: Esthètes et Magiciens / Symbolistes des collections parisiennes, Paris, Musée Galliera, December 1970 - January 1971, cat. no. 49: "Rêverie au clair de lune", reproduced [label on reverse]. Georges de Feure, 1868-1943, Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, 26 November 1993 - 13 February 1994, cat. no. 7: "Dans la dune (In the Dunes)", reproduced p. 37 [label on reverse] Georges de Feure, du symbolisme à l'art nouveau (1890-1905), Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée Départemental Maurice Denis - "Le Prieuré", 11 March - 5 June 1995 ; Gingins (Suisse), Fondation Neumann, 15 June - 3 September 1995, cat. no. 7 : "Dans la Dune", reproduced p. 34 [label on reverse] Bibliography: Millman, Ian, Georges de Feure, Maître du Symbolisme et de l'Art Nouveau, Paris, ACR Edition, 1992, reproduced p. 45: "Dans la Dune". "In his early paintings, M. de Feure was so much under the influence of Baudelaire, that he mostly contented himself with paraphrasing him<a href="#_ftn1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong><i>[1]</i></strong></a>". It was in these terms that the critic Henri Frantz, looking back on the first ten years of Georges de Feure's career in February 1900, emphasised the eminently Baudelairean character of his work. For Ian Millman, a specialist on the artist, Frantz's praise was based directly on the example of our powerful watercolour<a href="#_ftn2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a>. Les Fleurs du mal undoubtedly seeded the development of both literary and pictorial symbolism at the end of the nineteenth century and, throughout the 1890s, de Feure constantly drew inspiration from Baudelaire's writings, particularly Les Femmes damnées. The theme of Sapphic love was crucial for the poet, and just as important for the painter, who thus became part of the most accomplished and extreme expression of decadent aesthetics. Soberly entitled Dans la dune, our work takes as its starting point the opening lines of the poem in which Baudelaire describes naked lesbians lying by the sea, their feet and hands touching, gazing at the horizon, like ruminating cattle: "Like pensive cattle lying on the sand, They turn their eyes towards the horizon of the seas, And their feet seek each other and their hands come together Have sweet tongues and bitter shivers<a href="#_ftn3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong><i>[3]</i></strong></a>." However, far from making a literal translation, de Feure appropriates the poet's verses and imagery to develop the narrative through a series of subtle variations. In a departure from the resolutely modern synthesism that is his hallmark, the artist here adds a delicate moonbeam that focuses all the attention on the solitary couple, alternating between brown and white skin tones. In the foreground, the dune seems to surmount a curious cavern or grotto. This motif, recurrent in the painter's work, adds a certain symbolism to the composition by suggesting, through the evocation of a subterranean world, direct access to the subconscious and to his most unspoken sexual fantasies. <a href="#_ftnref1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a> Frantz, Henri, "Georges de Feure", Le Figaro illustré, no. 119, February 1900, pp. 38-47. <a href="#_ftnref2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a> "It may have been with works like Dans la dune in mind", Millman, Ian, in Georges de Feure, du symbolisme à l'art nouveau (1890-1905), p. 3 <a href="#_ftnref3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[3]</a> Charles Baudelaire, "Femmes damnées", in Les Fleurs du mal, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, p. 196. Georges de FEURE (Paris, 1868 - 1943) 27.0 x 43.5 cm "In his first paintings, M. de Feure was so much under the influence of Baudelaire that he usually contented himself with paraphrasing him<a href="#_ftn1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong><em>[1]</em></strong></a>". It was in these terms that the critic Henri Frantz, looking back on the first ten years of Georges de Feure's career in February 1900, emphasised the eminently Baudelairean character of his work. For Ian Millman, a specialist on the artist, Frantz's praise was based directly on the example of our powerful watercolour<a href="#_ftn2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a>. Les Fleurs du mal undoubtedly seeded the development of both literary and pictorial symbolism at the end of the nineteenth century and, throughout the 1890s, de Feure constantly drew inspiration from Baudelaire's writings, particularly Les Femmes damnées. The theme of Sapphic love was crucial for the poet, but just as important for the painter, who thus became part of the most accomplished and extreme expression of decadent aesthetics. Soberly entitled Dans la dune, our work takes as its starting point the opening lines of the poem in which Baudelaire describes naked lesbians lying by the sea, their feet and hands touching, gazing at the horizon, like ruminating cattle: "Like pensive cattle on the sand lying, They turn their eyes towards the horizon of the seas, And their feet seek each other and their hands close together Have sweet tongues and bitter shivers<a href="#_ftn3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong><em>[3]</em></strong></a>." However, far from making a literal translation, de Feure appropriates the poet's verses and imagery to develop the narrative through a series of subtle variants. In a departure from the resolutely modern synthesism that is his hallmark, the artist here adds a delicate moonbeam that focuses all attention on the solitary couple, alternating between brown and white skin tones. In the foreground, the dune seems to surmount a curious cavern or grotto. This motif, recurrent in the painter's work, adds a certain symbolism to the composition by suggesting, through the evocation of a subterranean world, direct access to the subconscious and to his most unspoken sexual fantasies. <a href="#_ftnref1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a> Frantz, Henri, "Georges de Feure", Le Figaro illustré, no. 119, February 1900, pp. 38-47. <a href="#_ftnref2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[2]</a> "It may have been with works like Dans la dune in mind", Millman, Ian, in Georges de Feure, du symbolisme à l'art nouveau (1890-1905), p. 3 <a href="#_ftnref3" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[3]</a> Charles Baudelaire, "Femmes damnées", in Les Fleurs du mal, Poulet-Malassis et de Broise, 1857, p. 196.