"A strong recoil of the modern imagination toward the past, an enormous scientific inquiry and unfamiliar passions towards a vague and still unidentified supernatural, has urged us to incarnate our dreams and even our fear before the new unknown in a strange symbolism which translates the contemporary soul as antique symbolism did for the soul of ancient times.Only it is not our faith and our beliefs that we put forward; on the contrary, it is our doubts, our fears, our boredoms, our vices, our despair and probably our agony."
- Fernand Khnopff in L'Art Moderne (1886)
Marguerite Burnat-Provins (1872-1952) was born in Arras in northern France, married in London, lived in Egypt, and finally adopted the Valais in Switzerland as her home. Her talents were as varied as her itinerary.
Symbolism was the house style of late 19th century French poets Charles Baudelaire, Stephane Mallarme, Arthur Rimbaud, et al, and artists mined its themes and methods. When nineteen-year-old Marguerite Provins arrived in Paris to study art at l'Academie Julien
in 1891, this was the world she entered. Unusual for a woman at the time, she also studied anatomy at the College of Medicine. An early self-portrait shows a young woman holding a pencil and touching a blank paper, her gaze averted, seemingly deep in contemplation. Perhaps she was thinking that she would soon end the dearth of female artists in the Symbolist Movement.
At twenty-three Provins created a series of allegories, done in crayon and sepia, that explored the subconscious life of a girl on the brink of womanhood. An air of unease permeates these dream-pictures, hinting at embedded questions. Is it enough to desire and be desired in return?
What other goals does life offer? Ordinary questions for a young woman, but her artistic conceptions reveal intense ratiocination and hint at anguish.
in 1891, this was the world she entered. Unusual for a woman at the time, she also studied anatomy at the College of Medicine. An early self-portrait shows a young woman holding a pencil and touching a blank paper, her gaze averted, seemingly deep in contemplation. Perhaps she was thinking that she would soon end the dearth of female artists in the Symbolist Movement.At twenty-three Provins created a series of allegories, done in crayon and sepia, that explored the subconscious life of a girl on the brink of womanhood. An air of unease permeates these dream-pictures, hinting at embedded questions. Is it enough to desire and be desired in return?
What other goals does life offer? Ordinary questions for a young woman, but her artistic conceptions reveal intense ratiocination and hint at anguish.We know that Provins had recently met a young architectural student, Adolph Burnat and that the two would marry in the following year. Allegorie, (1895), is full of ambivalence. The young woman turns away in her sleep from the rising sun and the blossoming of nature. 
Within the larger frame around the image, she is doubly boxed in by this superifically beautiful world.
Within the larger frame around the image, she is doubly boxed in by this superifically beautiful world.Much later, in 1939 Burnat-Provins would produce L'Agitation, a companion piece to La Confiance (at top), and a stark depiction of the effects of time and the experiences of war and dislocation on the human spirit. The eyes are open, but at what price?
Images: 1. La Confiance, 1926. 2. Profile a la Coiffe, 1889, Fondation Neumann, Switzerland. 3. Self-Portrait. 4. Allegorie, 1895. 5. L'Agitation, 1930s.
2 comments:
What a fascinating series of posts, giving an insight into the turmoils, passions, and contradictions of yet another all-but-forgotten female artist.
Selective memory loss seems to afflct the works of women. I would love to hold one of her books in my hands, someday. However, I think that it is her portrayals of human subjects that are unforgettable.
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