On loan to The Met The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
The Doors (Les Portes)
Xavier Mellery Belgian
Mellery created a visual and spatial conundrum for the viewer: do we see two doors opening in opposite directions, or a mirrored reflection? Small discrepancies, such as the partially raised blind on the door in the foreground, suggest an answer. Mellery carefully manipulated the quality and the patterns of the sunlight in order to animate the interior and set a mood. In a review of the artist’s work, his friend the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren observed, "There remains in [the] atmosphere of an empty room a little of the human soul."
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