Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels Date: c. 1889 Technique: Enhanced photograph (picture platinum accented with colored pencils) , 29,5 x 18,4 cm The invention of photography enabled the Symbolist artists to develop a new working instrument and performing, but above all it offered to art a new sense of complicity vision, emotion and creation. Through its focus on photography, practicing and following the evolution of new techniques, Khnopff joined the generation of artists whose goal was to create not threatened its integrity. Like Gustave Moreau, Alphonse Mucha, Edvard Munch and Franz von Stuck he used the photo as sketch and composition as a collection of images from living memory. However, it is one of the few artists to have recaptured the shots of his own works to recreate new originals. For ten years, photographer Alexander made photographs of existing works of Khnopff and printed on photographic quality paper that went on cards bearing his stamp dry Alexander PHOTO '. The process of making and printing used by Alexander was described as platinogravure. It was a very expensive process which was reserved for high quality professional work such as reproduction and artistic portraits mark. In his artist's mind Khnopff considered each drawing as a new original work, cut to size, as miniaturized. (From Anne Adriaens-Pannier, in cat. Khnopff) Source