Johannes Wilhelmus Jacobus Schouten

JOHANNES WILHELMUS JACOBUS SCHOUTEN (Netherlands, 1859-1927)
"Satyr and nymph. The Kiss."
Patinated bronze
Marble base.
Signed on the front: JW Schouten.
Sources: Documentatie van Beeldende Kunst in Zuid-Holland (Tilburg); Scheen, P.A. (1969), Lexicon Nederlandse Beeldende Kunstenaars 1750-1950, The Hague: Kunsthandel Pieter Scheen.
Measurements: 34 cm (sculpture height); 4 x 29 x 23 cm (base); 37 x 38 x 25 (total measurements).

In "Satyr and nymph: The Kiss", Johannes Wilhelmus Jacobus Schouten develops a mythological theme of long tradition in European art: the encounter between the instinctive and the idealized, embodied in the figure of the satyr and the nymph. The composition, conceived in group bust format, concentrates the action on the intimate gesture of the kiss, accentuating the tension between desire and abandonment through expressive and dynamic modeling.

The treatment of the surfaces reveals a clear naturalistic sensibility: the rough texture of the satyr's beard and hair contrasts with the softness of the female face, generating a tactile play that enriches the sculptural reading.

Schouten, a Dutch sculptor active between the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, worked within the artistic climate marked by naturalism and late symbolism.