Georges de Feure

Collection Mlle J.;

By descent to the present owner.

I. Millman, Georges De Feure, Maître du Symbolisme et de l’Art Nouveau, Courbevoie 1992, pp. 86-87.

Tokyo, Odakyu Grand Gallery and Osaka, Daimaru Museum, Umeda, Georges de Feure, July-September 1990, no. 10;

Amsterdam, Van Gogh Museum, Georges de Feure, 1868-1943, November 1993-February 1994, no. 17;

Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Musée départemental Maurice Denis and Gingins, Fondation Neumann, Georges de Feure. Du symbolisme à l’art nouveau (1890-1905), March–September 1995, no. 15.

The Intruder is a very fine example of a new type of composition used by De Feure in 1894 and 1895. A lone female figure occupies the foreground of the composition, in profile or in three-quarter view, surrounded by flowers or in front of a window opening onto the background, where there is a scene apparently representing her thoughts or fantasies. Ian Millman points out that this arrangement is fairly often found in the art of Odilon Redon, a sort of frame within a frame, enclosing the woman’s profile.

In Millman’s view, there is no doubt that the outsider is the elegant woman in the foreground, but as is so often the case, De Feure plays with polysemy in an ambiguous composition which allows for many interpretations. The woman’s severe and perhaps accusing expression as she turns towards the horseman might indicate that the outsider is in fact the man’s mistress, absent from the composition, and that the man, who seems to be ignoring the woman’s gaze, is on his way to visit her.