obscure 19th century painters

I've been discovering some obscure 19th century painters. It's amazing how many very fine painters from this era are now almost entirely forgotten. Like George Sheridan Knowles, about whom I know nothing whatsoever.

George Sheridan Knowles, Spring, 1899

Fernand Khnopff

Belgium was one of the nerve centres of the Symbolist movement and Fernand Khnopff (1858-1921) was certainly one of the leading Belgian Symbolists.

His favourite model, his sister Marguerite, figures in some of his most disturbing and enigmatic pictures. She encapsulated perfectly his slightly conflicted view of women.


Khnopff was influenced by the English Pre-Raphaelites and knew several of them personally, including Burne-Jones.

what this blog is for

This blog is an offshoot of my Livejournal Strange Tears community. The subject will be art and literature of the 19th century, or at least the period from Waterloo to the outbreak of the Great War (1815-1914).

More specifically the focus will be on movements such as the Pre-Raphaelites, the Symbolists and the Decadents. I'll also be posting about the later Romantics and the academic painters of the 19th century. Various manifestations of the gothic will undoubtedly get a mention.

You won't find any posts dealing with the Impressionists or any art movement that worshipped the false god of realism.