Xavier Mellery (1845-1921)
La Tricoteuse (Soir, effet de lampe), 1890
Black chalk and ink washes on paper
12¼ x 9 inches (31 x 23 cm.)
Signed 'X Mellery'
CATALOGUE AVAILABLE
Perhaps not as well-known and prolific as his famous student and contemporary Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), Xavier Mellery is considered a pivotal pioneer of Belgian Symbolism. With a finite number of works - mostly kept in public collections in Belgium - Mellery's creative legacy and influence is anything but inconsequential. Considered one of the founders of the art movement in Belgium, who made a prodigious contribution to its early development in the 1880s, Mellery did not receive the international recognition he deserves. Both his paintings and drawings are distinguished by their monumentality, in spite of their relatively small size, and loaded with a deep allegorical content, yet they seem to proclaim scenes from daily life. It is these contrasts and contradictions that are still as mysterious and alluring today.
Perhaps not as well-known and prolific as his famous student and contemporary Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921), Xavier Mellery is considered a pivotal pioneer of Belgian Symbolism. With a finite number of works - mostly kept in public collections in Belgium - Mellery's creative legacy and influence is anything but inconsequential. Considered one of the founders of the art movement in Belgium, who made a prodigious contribution to its early development in the 1880s, Mellery did not receive the international recognition he deserves. Both his paintings and drawings are distinguished by their monumentality, in spite of their relatively small size, and loaded with a deep allegorical content, yet they seem to proclaim scenes from daily life. It is these contrasts and contradictions that are still as mysterious and alluring today.