Hope Is beyond the Window

1948

In the Hands of Light: Images and Poems: Hope Is beyond the Window, 1948. Marcel G. Lefrancq (Belgian, 1916–1974). Gelatin silver print, ferrotyped; image: 22.9 x 15.2 cm (9 x 6 in.); paper: 22.9 x 16.3 cm (9 x 6 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 2007.67.11 © Marcel G. Lefrancq In works such as this one, Marcel G. Lefrancq presented views of daily life in his native city, Mons, from an unexpected perspective. A woman stands inside a room looking out the window in a reversal of the standard version of such imagery: rather than being seen from indoors, landscape enters the space in the form of a creeping vine. Lefrancq published it in a photographic portfolio, where it was featured alongside similarly evocative poetry. During World War II, Marcel G. Lefrancq took photographs for fake IDs for Jews attempting to escape Belgium.