Enigmatic Parisian Sphinx
A dreamy young woman, lost in thought, gently supports her head with her hand. She stares out, directly at us. The unusual, cool lighting creates an unsettling atmosphere. The background is brown and neutral, the space devoid of objects or attributes. She is so enigmatic, this woman that Alfred Stevens painted in his Parisian Sphinx. And so very different to the kind of ladies he usually depicted, in their richly appointed interiors, full of frills and ornaments. Who is she? What riddles does she have to tell? The title merely adds to the mystery.
Femme fatale
There’s no denying it: artists like looking at women. They traditionally gave them mythological or historical roles, but Stevens wanted to do something different. He portrayed contemporary women as seductive subjects. In The Parisian Sphinx, he turns a young bourgeoise into a mysterious and sensual apparition. A femme fatale.
Stevens’ paintings
The Brussels-born artist Alfred Stevens made his name in Paris as a painter of beautifully dressed ladies. He portrayed them in charming genre pieces, in which he invariably captured a fleeting mood. The sadness of a farewell, the emotion of a letter, the rustle of a silk dress. Each one an atmospheric painting packed with wealth and luxury. ‘The glance of a woman has more charm than the most beautiful landscape or seascape, and more attraction than a ray of sunlight.’ So wrote Stevens himself in his Impressions sur la peinture, a book with 360 aphorisms on painting. The same thinking is clearly expressed in The Parisian Sphinx.
