A History of Silence

Fernand Khnopff, Silence, 1890

This painting shows the importance of silence for the symbolists. The gloved hand of the model – the artist’s sister – enjoins silence. But it does more: it invites the viewer to retreat from the external world, and place themself, so to speak, outside time.

Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts, © akg images

Odilon Redon, Closed Eyes, 1890

More than the ‘troubled dream’ aimed at by the artist, this is a painting of a woman listening to an interior language, revealed by her closed eyes.

Paris, Musée d’Orsay, © Photo Josse / Leemage

Georges de La Tour, Saint Joseph the Carpenter, 1638/1645

Joseph, not one word of whose is recorded in the Scriptures, personifies the profundity of absolute silence, here shown next to the divinity of Christ.

Paris, Louvre Museum, © Photo Josse / Leemage

Arthur Hughes, The Long Engagement, 1859

It is through silence that love is expressed at its most profound. When lovers remain silent, they devote themselves to each other.

Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, © Heritage Images / Contributor / Getty

Edgar Degas, In a Cafe, also called Absinthe, 1875/1876

Though sitting side by side, the two people seem to be strangers to each other. One is plunged into an interior silence, the other remains silent, but still watches the world go by.

Paris, Musée d’Orsay, © Luisa Ricciarini / Leemage

Piero della Francesca, The Madonna of the Parturition, 1476/1483

Silence goes with maternity because it implies serenity.

This is one of the rare paintings which portrays the pregnant Virgin.

René Magritte, The Dominion of Light, 1954

Everything here contributes to the presence of silence. Magritte, as a surrealist, confuses the light codes and heightens the contrasts.

Edward Hopper, Gas, 1940

The man standing by the petrol pumps, and his tiny shop, are lost in the immensity of the vast Texas silence, a silence which is also waiting.