28 museomag   02 ‘ 2022 
At the end of 2021, the museum acquired its first work 
by Luxembourg artist Julie Wagener: a horizontal, 
50 x 204 cm oil painting depicting a seemingly dead 
body, lying under a heavily draped, white linen cloth. 
The unusual, almost life-size format of the painting 
makes the scene it portrays seem very real, almost 
too real, to the viewer. When standing in front of 
Wagener’s painting, one feels a certain sense of 
unease. It evokes a feeling of calm and vulnerability, 
but feels very direct and aggressive at the same time. 
A pale yellow, almost greenish skin-coloured hand is 
hanging lifelessly over the edge of a mattress. In the 
background, we see glimpses of a head turning away 
from us and a motionless body wearing nothing but 
red socks. The colour of the skin and the greyish tones 
of the linen cloth create a cold, uncanny atmosphere 
against the black background of the painting. Who 
is this person? How did this person get here, was he 
or she ill? And the ultimate question: Are we bearing 
witness to this person’s death? 
Julie Wagener is a painter and illustrator, and the 
winner of the ‘Prix révélation’ at the 2021 edition of the 
annual Salon du CAL. As the artist states in an interview 
for the 1535° Creative Hub, much of her inspiration 
derives from the works of Old Masters: ‘I love the Middle- 
Ages and everything that is religious art. For me, it’s a 
major source of inspiration’. It therefore seems hardly 
surprising that Wagener’s work It hurts until it doesn’t 
III reminds us of a painting by one of the most impor- 
tant artists of the early 16th century, Hans Holbein the 
Younger’s (1497/8 - 1543) The Dead Christ in the Tomb 
from 1521-22. The striking resemblance with the for- 
mat of Holbein’s Christ as well as the motif itself, seem 
to make this an unmistakable point of reference for 
Wagener’s painting. Based on the suffering and death 
of Jesus Christ, Holbein’s painting is an undeniable 
reminder of our own mortality. The loneliness of Jesus, 
left in the tomb niche with his eyes and mouth still 
open, further emphasises this. 
BETWEEN HOLBEIN AND HODLER 
Another important art historical reference that comes 
to mind is a series of works by Swiss painter Ferdinand 
Hodler (1853-1918), portraying Valentine Godé-Darel. 
Hodler, whose obsession with the subject of death pro- 
bably also sparked from his fascination with Holbein’s 
The Dead Christ in the Tomb, made an extensive series 
of paintings, drawings and sketches of his dying lover 
Darel. The series documents the progression of her ter- 
minal illness up to the moment she took her last breath 
on her deathbed in 1915 (Kraft, 1981). The works depic- 
ting Darel on her deathbed seem particularly evocative 
of Wagener’s It hurts until it doesn’t III. 
It hurts until it doesn’t III is currently held in storage, but will hopefully be on display once the exhibition rooms for modern and 
contemporary art on the 4th floor reopen again. 
OUT OF THE SOCIAL BODY 
A NEW ACQUISITION FOR THE COLLECTION OF LUXEMBOURG ART:   
JULIE WAGENER’S IT HURTS UNTIL IT DOESN’T III PUT INTO CONTEXT 
© 
éric chenal