William Degouve de Nuncques, a key figure in Symbolism and fin-de-siècle movement in Belgium, is an artist shrouded in mystery. He has often been described as a refined painter from a noble French family. Recent research suggests that Degouve was more likely to have created a social figure marked by the codes of Symbolism, combining artistic practice with a form of intellectual aristocratic aesthetic, made of eccentricity and marginality.

After a brief academic education, the young Degouve de Nuncques decided to devote himself to art as a self-taught artist. As early as 1883, he encountered Jan Toorop, who was staying near Brussels, it was also during his youth that he met Henry de Groux, with whom he maintained a close friendship throughout his life. He was close to the Groupe des XX, joining them for their last exhibition in 1893. His marriage to the painter Juliette Massin brought Degouve closer to the avant-garde of the young Belgian poets. Maurice Maeterlinck, Émile Verhaeren, Eugène Demolder, Camille Lemonnier and Stefan Zweig were all part of his circle.

The couple's first trip to Italy in 1895 left a deep impression on Degouve. He discovered Milan, Como, Bologna and Venice. From this time in Italy, until the years in Mallorca (1899-1902), Degouve devoted much of his time to night scenes. It was during this prosperous period that some of the artist's major works were produced. Our pastel is remarkable not only for its quality, but also for its size: it appears to be by far the largest pastel Degouve produced during this period.

Le Lac de Côme was first exhibited at the Salon de La Libre Esthétique in 1897. Degouve was at the height of his Symbolist period (1892-1899). The critics were immediately full of praise: “Degouve reveals nothing unknown to us. He has gone a little further into the land of dreams and gentleness of which he is the pensive and tender pilgrim. We already had these evenings, these twilights, but was he ever more extremely velvety than in Le Lac de Côme and in this admirable night of winter and frost, which is perhaps the most perfect of his works” (Emile Verhaeren, in L'art moderne, March 7, 1897).

If pastel is the medium of choice for Symbolists, Degouve is the pastelist par excellence. Here, he makes skilful use of pastel, using a gradation of pigment intensity to capture the feeling of mist falling over Lake Como at dusk. More than an image, the mist in the drawing is almost perceptible, as is the comforting feeling of domestic light at dusk.

The exploration of moonlight through monochrome and gradations of blue creates a veiling effect and enhances the dreamy side of the imagination. This impression is reinforced by the domestic light that concentrates and diffuses the line, allowing the motif to evaporate in a bewitching atmosphere.

Thanks to its particular hues and pulverized pigments, which seem to radiate an inner light, pastel creates an impression of spirituality and elusiveness. Pastels can be blended and blurred, to create gradations and veiled half-tones, creating ambiguity and accompanying dreams.

The Symbolists' interest in nocturnal landscapes led to a singular evolution in landscape painting, with nocturne becoming a Landscape category. They are conducive to the development of the imagination, and challenges the certainties of the sunlit scene.

It's interesting to compare the pictorial language of Symbolist nights with the introspective melancholy of the minor mode generally used by composers in their nocturnes, from John Field to Claude Debussy. In poetry, it also echoes texts such as Verhaeren's “Black Trilogy”, which forged a moonlit landscape imaginary.

This tendency towards pictorial effect, coupled with fully elaborated sheets, and, as in this case, large-scale images, testifies to the equal status of drawing with painting at the end of the century.

The line is absorbed into a chiaroscuro, fading away. The subject is withdrawn from a perception too acute, favoring the reflection of an atmosphere determined by time and light. This serves to reveal the deeper reality that lies behind the visible motif.

With his majestic Lac de Côme, Degouve demonstrates the power of a pastel nocturne.

This drawing belonged to Roberto Payró, an Argentine writer, journalist and art critic who played a key role in organizing the 1911 exhibition in Buenos Aires.