The Parisian Sphinx by Alfred Stevens

Beside being renowned for its realism and luminism, The Parisian Sphinx has been described as enigmatic, just as its title. Critics agree in that the apparently realistic painting conceals a hidden meaning. Many point to the “hidden dangers behind feminine tenderness,” and to the figure of the femme fatale. In The Parisian Sphinx, Stevens turns

Eugène Carrière

Eugène Carrière (1849-1906) was a French Symbolist painter, lithographer, and sculptor known for his atmospheric, monomchromatic style of domestic intimacy scenes and for his portraits of distinguished literary and artistic personalities.The misty appearance of Carrière’s work was prized by contemporaries tired of precisely detailed and realistic paintings. A critic once compared Carrière’s style to that

A Woman at a Fountain With Rising Moon by Ferdinand Knab

Arnold Böcklin

Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) was a Swiss symbolist painter.

Toteninsel by Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach

The King’s Daughter (Die Königstochter) by Eduard Veith

The Wheel of Fortune by Edward Burne-Jones

“My wheel of Fortune is a true-to-life image; it comes to fetch each of us in turn, then it crushes us,” was Burne-Jones’ heartfelt or disillusioned comment. The work is a perfect example of his taste for classical myths and medieval legends, which mingle uneasy sensuality and a feeling of disquiet, which make his symbolism

Vale (Farewell) by Arthur Hacker

Night and Her Daughter Sleep by Mary Lizzie Macomber

Le Silence by Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer

Le Silence, a picture that Levy-Dhurmer kept throughout his life, is without doubt one of his most fascinating works. It has the suggestive power of an icon, an image that is all the more compelling for being presented as an enigma: fixed in a hieratic pose, with eyes hidden in shadow, the figure eludes all