I Lock My Door Upon Myself

Above the woman's head in Khnopff's I Lock My Door Upon Myself sits a small bronze bust of Hypnos, the Greek god of sleep. One of his wings is missing. The wing is missing because Khnopff had seen the actual bronze bust at the British Museum in London, where the wing had broken off centuries earlier. He painted the bust exactly as he saw it, with the empty space left empty. The bust sits in the room like a permission to retreat. Below it, a poppy stands for sleep. Three orange lilies stand for the three stages of life. The model is Khnopff's sister Marguerite. The title is a line from Christina Rossetti's poem, Who Shall Deliver Me? Now at Neue Pinakothek, Munich @pinakotheken