Exceptional Works: Léon Spilliaert

Dame au pince-nez (Lady with Lorgnette), 1907

India ink wash, brush, watercolor, and colored pencil on paper Framed: 48 1/2 x 37 5/8 x 1 1/4 inches (123.2 x 95.6 x 3.2 cm)

“When Spilliaert interprets elegance and femininity, his vision owes nothing to the Romantic ideal.... Like Baudelaire, he responds to another definition of beauty.”

—Dr. Noémie Goldman and Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier, “Reality and Creation in the Sea Mists of Ostend,” in Léon Spilliaert, 2020

On view in New York for the first time, Dame au pince-nez (Lady with Lorgnette) (1907) is an iconic work by the Belgian artist Léon Spilliaert. Dating from a highly creative and energetic period in Spilliaert’s early career, this enigmatic portrait epitomizes his unique style and atmospheric palette.

Often depicting a solitary figure in a dreamlike space, Spilliaert’s paintings convey a sense of melancholy and stillness that was influenced by the artist’s life in the seaside city of Ostend, Belgium, which is known for its long beachside promenade and prominent abutting architecture. An avid reader and insomniac who was plagued by illness, Spilliaert would walk at night along the deserted promenade, absorbing and responding constantly to the nocturnal coastal landscape.

A work on paper by Léon Spilliaert, titled Autoportrait, 2 novembre (Self-Portrait, 2 November), dated 1908.

Léon Spilliaert, Autoportrait, 2 novembre (Self-portrait, 2 November), 1908

James Ensor, Self-portrait with flowered hat, 1883. Mu.ZEE - Kunstmuseum aan Zee, Oostende, Belgium

Predominantly self-taught, Spilliaert worked as an illustrator for publisher and print dealer Edmond Deman, who published nineteenth-century symbolist writers including Stephane Mallarmé and translations of Edgar Allan Poe. Influenced from an early stage by the paintings of Odilon Redon and James McNeill Whistler, the artist’s works from the 1900s and 1910s demonstrate the development of his distinctive expressionist language. During this period, symbolist painting moved away from the realism of traditional portraiture, instead using symbolic imagery and evocative color to express the psychological state of the subject.

Spilliaert’s career is often considered in tandem with that of his contemporary, the Belgian painter James Ensor (1860–1949), who, like the younger artist, was born and lived much of his life in Ostend. Like Ensor, Spilliaert has been highly influential to subsequent generations of artists—most notably, Luc Tuymans (b. 1958)—who have observed the universal qualities in Spilliaert’s depictions of the human condition and recognize in Spilliaert an artist for our time.

Léon Spilliaert, left, with the sculptor Oscar Jespers on the balcony of the Kursaal, Ostend, Belgium, August 1925 (detail). Photo by Maurice Antony

Luc Tuymans, Portrait, 2000

“Spilliaert, unlike Ensor who was convinced he was a genius, shows more disturbance in his work; one could argue that it is much more in tune with his times. All this is apparent in the way the work questions itself, his idea of contemplation seems to be constantly on the move.”

—Luc Tuymans, “A Ghostlike Presence,” in Léon Spilliaert, 2020

Léon Spilliaert, Dame au pince-nez (Lady with Lorgnette), 1907 (detail)

“As a pendant to his own image, he created a female figure with piercing eyes. From this notion of womanhood—which seems to have undergone a psychological transformation since the first Symbolist representations—a silent apparition emerged, full of self-confidence and the desire for independence.”

—Dr. Noémie Goldman and Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier, “Reality and Creation in the Sea Mists of Ostend,” in Léon Spilliaert, 2020

Installation view, Léon Spilliaert, David Zwirner, New York, 2025

A large-scale, haunting work, Dame au pince-nez (Lady with Lorgnette) is distinguished by the artist’s signature dark palette and near-abstract treatment of the human form. The artist’s depictions of women in 1907–1910 in particular convey a sense of existential isolation that parallels the solemnity of his landscapes. Barely distinguishable from her seat, only the unnamed woman’s shoulders, hand, and high collar indicate her shape; emerging from the dark mass of her dress, her face, brooch, and delicate glasses are carefully illuminated, revealing an intent gaze. As Dr. Noémie Goldman and Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier note:

“Solitude and waiting seem to be the most striking attributes of the female existence.... A pensive silhouette, seated at a table, a figure swathed in veils, motionless before the waves or perched on a stool facing a blank wall: these portraits of women, created between 1907 and 1910, convey a feeling of existential abandonment.”

Léon Spilliaert, Dame au pince-nez (Lady with Lorgnette), 1907 (detail)

“The young woman [in Dame au pince-nez] is bathed in a diffuse luminescence, which softens the contours of her deliberately austere dress. Spilliaert concentrates the rays of light upon part of her face and shrouds the remainder in a delicately executed shadow. The light is reflected in the gleaming surface of a circular brooch, which serves to underpin the face, before falling exclusively on the hand—which is probably highlighted as the instrument of spiritual inspiration.”

—Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Léon Spilliaert: From the Depths of the Soul, 2019

James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1: Portrait of the Artist’s Mother, 1871. © RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY

In common with Whistler’s famous painting of his mother, made in 1871, Dame au pince-nez (Lady with Lorgnette) features a somber palette and subtle modulations of single colors. In both paintings, the woman’s hand and face are highlighted against a dark garment; and in both works, the frame of a painting on the wall is visible to the right of the subject’s head, suggesting a personal relationship with art.

Spread from Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Léon Spilliaert: From the Depths of the Soul, 2019

“The woman portrayed in Lady with a Lorgnette, 1907, who though taciturn is self-assured in her pose, lives in harmony with the discrete bourgeois interior. Might this young woman perhaps be an artist or collector herself? Although we cannot say with any certainty, the clear presence of a painting might suggest this.”

—Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Léon Spilliaert: From the Depths of the Soul, 2019

Installation view, Léon Spilliaert, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2020

“Spilliaert seemed to believe that women would ultimately have the strength to overcome the obstacles put in their way by an unyielding patriarchal society.”

—Dr. Anne Adriaens-Pannier, Léon Spilliaert: From the Depths of the Soul, 2019

Léon Spilliaert