Symbolist Portrait By Emile Fabry

Symbolist Portrait or Study for "L'effort" , oil on canvas by Emile Fabry.

Born in Verviers in 1865, Emile Fabry trained at the Beaux-Arts in Brussels in Jean Portaels' studio. He was deeply influenced by Michelangelo and Puvis de Chavannes, who contributed to the monumentality and subtlety of his painting.

His subjects seem timeless, confronted with the vertigo of the human soul and conducive to reflection, meditation, and contemplation. A major artist of Symbolism, his involvement in the artistic avant-garde was very important; a founding member with Jean Delville of the Pour l'Art circle in 1892 and of Art Monumental in 1920, he actively participated in the Salons de la Rose-Croix du Sâr Péladan. Opposed to materialism and growing modernity, art was seen there as a sacred space and the artist as a prophet.

The painting we are presenting here shows a woman's face in close-up with a firm expression, where the prominent facial muscles are reminiscent of those of Michelangelo's Sibyls. The work is a study for “L'effort ou l'expansion coloniale” (Colonial Effort or Expansion), a monumental work created for the 1905 Universal Exhibition in Liège, now preserved in the Hôtel Communal in Woluwé-Saint-Pierre.

The deep gaze seems to look down on the viewer to contemplate an object that is invisible to them. The colorful background evokes a timeless space, and this figure fits perfectly into the painter's enigmatic universe.

Frame dimensions: 42.5x65.5cm