During the 1860s, when still a child, Fernand Khnopff spent several years in Bruges. Back then, the city exuded an air of melancholy and languor. The surroundings made a profound impression on the young Khnopff.
Forty years later, the artist created this work, Secret-Reflet, two separate and very different drawings that he united within a gilded, rectangular frame. The pencil drawing underneath shows the Gothic retaining wall of the medieval Saint John’s Hospital, but especially its reflection in the water of the Reie canal. In French: le reflet. Khnopff is a Symbolist artist: it is not the objects themselves that are important, but their reflections. The mirror, with its many connotations, was extremely popular in Symbolist art.
The pastel drawing at the top is a portrait of Khnopff’s sister, Marguerite, his muse, whom he greatly admired. She resembles a priestess in this work. Marguerite caresses and closes the mouth of a mask, which shares her features. The mask – or is it Marguerite herself? – will keep a secret, in French: un secret. That which is unspoken, is not visible, and thus not immediately comprehensible: in the eyes of a Symbolist like Khnopff, this is where you find the essence of life.
But what is the connection between these two very different drawings? Fernand Khnopff leaves it up to us to solve the riddles. It is completely open to interpretation.