Fernand Khnopff, Georges Rodenbach, and Bruges, the Dead City

Abstract

The image of the city of Bruges in the work of Fernand Khnopff, generally considered the most important of the Belgian Symbolist artists of the late 19th century, is here reinterpreted in light of the writings of the Belgian author Georges Rodenbach, whose influential novel Bruges-la-Morte not only made Bruges renowned as “the dead city,” but created for a generation of Symbolist artists and writers the quintessential image of the city as “soulscape.” Rodenbach's novel, along with his poems and essays, is shown to have greatly influenced specific depictions of Bruges by Khnopff.

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Notes on contributors

Lynne Pudles

Lynne Pudles received her Ph.D. in 1987 from the University of California, Berkeley, with the support of a Danforth Fellowship and a Theodore. Rousseau Fellowship from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She has taught at the University of Chicago and is currently Assistant Professor of Art History at Lake Forest College, where she is working on a series of essays on Belgian Symbolist artists [Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, Ill. 60045].