Symbolist Owls And Their Young By Henri De Groux (1866-1930)

Symbolist scene, owls and their young perched on a cliff. By the Symbolist artist Henri de Groux (1866-1930). Pastel on canvas. Framed and glazed (UV-resistant glass). Circa 1895.

He trained at the Brussels Academy where he was a student of Jean-François Portaels. There he met William Degouve de Nuncques, with whom he became friends. At the age of 22, he painted Christ Mocked, a work that would make him famous. A member of the L'Essor group in 1884, he was accepted into Les XX in 1886. In 1890, he caused his first scandal at the Salon des XX, refusing to exhibit so as not to be near Vincent van Gogh's Sunflowers, having insulted the artist, as well as Paul Signac and Toulouse-Lautrec.
A painter of the Symbolist circles in Paris, he settled there in 1891. He produced the majority of his work and associated with other artists such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Whistler, Gauguin, Ensor, Rodin, and Debussy. He also frequented numerous writers, including his future son-in-law Émile Baumann, Mallarmé, Apollinaire, Oscar Wilde, Léon Bloy, Verlaine, Zola, Heredia, Gide, Milosz, Rémy de Gourmont, and Huysmans.