The Mad Maiden, Bronze sculpture in Middelheim Museum, Antwerp, Belgium
The Mad Maiden is a bronze sculpture depicting a figure caught in dynamic dance movement, standing roughly 2 meters high. The work captures a moment of intense physical expression and conveys a sense of motion and energy through its form.
Rik Wouters modelled the sculpture in 1912 in his studio in Bosvoorde, near Brussels, and worked on it for about five years. He was inspired by Isadora Duncan's wild Scythian dance, which he and his wife Nel had seen in December 1907 at the Muntschouwburg in Brussels. With the ill Nel as his model, he made an ecstatic, laughing dancer, breaking with the cold academicism of his time. The two-metre figure was set on a pedestal to stress its springiness.
Wouters modelled the dancer on his wife Nel Deurinckx, who was ill at the time; he worked on the piece for five years. He first called it De dwaze maagd (The Mad Virgin), and the name Het zotte geweld came into use later. The Brussels dealer Georges Giroux was so convinced by the sculpture that he gave Wouters a contract and a monthly salary.
The work sits in the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp and is displayed outdoors, allowing you to view it from every angle. The location is easy to reach and you should allow time for a full walk around to appreciate the sculpture and its surroundings.
The Middelheim cast has been on loan from the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp since 1950. The copy at the Museum of Ixelles was once painted pink during a student party in the 1970s. Wouters's young widow had further casts made after his death in 1916.
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