At Home

Louis Welden Hawkins (1849–1910) was a painter born in Germany who took French nationality in 1895. Hawkins attended the Académie Julian in Paris and made his public debut at the Salon des Artistes Français in 1881 and also collaborated with the Rose + Croix group. Hawkins worked in a range of styles, including the one of the Pre-Raphaelites, but later he chose the path of Symbolism influenced also by his relationships with symbolists writers and artists such as Mallarmé or Puvis de Chavannes.

At Home (in French, Le Foyer) is an example of refined symbolism chosen by the artist. This amazing landscape is painted on a very narrow vertical format. Only a ladder placed horizontally breaks the verticality of the painting. The trunk of a tree in the foreground, cut to the left by the frame, places the viewer as a hiding observer. The eye is led to the wall of a building that closes the space in the background. The fragile light seems to be the one of dawn. Through the window, a flame attracts attention. Is it a candle, a fireplace fire? The presence of a bouquet of flowers, placed on the rim of the ogive window, adds to the mystery that emerges from painting. From the scene and the little house emerges also a feeling of solitude and intemporality, although we know by the light that a human presence is here. The feeling of curiosity of the viewer who wants to break the intimacy of this peaceful home can be found also in Empire of Light by Magritte, where the treatment of light and building is similar.

Tony Goupil

P.S. Read here about symbolism in Victorian art.