The Mad Maiden (Rik Wouters)
The Mad Maiden or The Mad Virgin (Dutch: Het zotte geweld or De dwaze maagd) is a bronze statue by the Belgian artist Rik Wouters, created in 1912.
The statue depicts Wouters' wife and muse, Nel Deurinckx, in a dynamic and ecstatic dancing pose. Wouters very often painted, drew and sculpted his wife in charming, everyday settings, while she was sleeping, reading, or doing domestic chores; The Mad Maiden is exceptional because it shows her in such an unusually carefree way.[1]
Wouters became inspired for this sculpture when he and Nel visited a 1907 performance by the American modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan in the Muntschouwburg in Brussels.[2][3]
Several copies of the sculpture were made, also after the artist's early death in 1916. Casts of the sculpture are part of the following art collections:
- Middelheimmuseum, Antwerp, Belgium (on loan from the Royal Museum of Fine Art Antwerp)[4]
- Belfius Art Collection, Brussels, Belgium[3]
Bibliografie
- Bernard Dewulf, "De feesttooi van het licht. Over Rik Wouters", in: Bijlichtingen. Kijken naar schilders, Uitgeverij Atlas, 2001
- Peter Theunynck en Lies Van Gasse, Nel, een zot geweld, Uitgeverij Wereldbibliotheek, 2016
[[Category:Sculptures in Belgium]]
- ^ Bentein, M.R. (1967). "Rik Wouters - Het zotte geweld". Openbaar Kunstbezit Vlaanderen (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-11-13.
{{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "Zotte Geweld". Het Nieuwe Museum (in Dutch). Retrieved 2017-11-13.
- ^ a b "Het zotte geweld". De Belfius-collectie. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "Rik Wouters (Belgium): The Mad Maiden". www.middelheimmuseum.be. Retrieved 2017-11-13.
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