The Game Warden
by KHNOPFF, Fernand, Oil on canvas, 151 x 177 cm
The landscapes the Belgian Symbolist Khnopff painted around Fosset in the Ardennes at different times of his life are mostly deserted. This painting, too, seems strangely lifeless, despite the presence of the game warden. Seemingly withdrawn, he is standing stiff as a board in the meadow. As if he had been added to the unspectacular setting with hindsight, he is not even casting a shadow. It shows that the artist was concerned not with the representation of exterior reality but with inner awareness.