Portraits de SS.AA.RR. Le Grand-Duc Jean et La Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte, 2006/2010

Breaking with a certain modern abstract sculpture tradition, Stephan Balkenhol has returned to figuration and a creative process that favors craftsmanship. Going against the stream of an ultra-rapid society, he has rediscovered a taste for slow elaboration where the physical relationship to the material (roughly cut raw wood) triumphs. His work is a concentration of sensuality, vivacity and monumentality, always counterbalanced by a drop of humor. The portrait of HRH Grand Duke Jean (S.A.R. Le Grand-Duc Jean) and of his wife (S.A.R La Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte), in the lobby, are museum commissions offering homage to its royal homonym.