Paul Delvaux was a Belgian painter noted for his dream-like scenes of women, classical architecture, trains and train stations, and skeletons, often in combination. He is often considered a surrealist, although he only briefly identified with the surrealist movement. He was influenced by the works of Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, but developed his own fantastical subjects and hyper-realistic styling, combining the detailed classical beauty of academic painting with the bizarre juxtapositions of surrealism.
Paintings by Paul Delvaux
The Road to Rome (painting) (1979)
The Road to Rome (French: La Route de Rome) is a 1979 painting by the Belgian painter Paul Delvaux. It depicts a European town square in twilight, with a number of women, many of whom are nude or semi-nude, scattered around the scene. Three high, open doors stand upright along the walkway.
The central theme is the muse, the female figure as the force behind inspiration. The central woman is depicted as beautiful but inaccessible. According to the Paul Delvaux Foundation, "she not so much evokes sexuality as refers to a troubling aesthetic physicality". Delvaux was largely influenced by Italian painters, but the cold colour scale relates to his identity as a Northern European. The scenery relates to Brussels, the Wallonian countryside as well as Delvaux's interest in classical antiquity. By juxtaposing classical and modern elements, Delvaux tried to create a sense of timelessness.
The Great Sirens (1947)
The Great Sirens (French: Les grandes sirènes) is a large 1947 painting by the Belgian painter Paul Delvaux in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York.
The picture depicts a group of partially nude women in moonlight, sitting motionless before a hill bearing two Greco-Roman style buildings. According to the description from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the setting "reveals the painter's admiration of the work of Giorgio de Chirico". The women in the foreground are unashamedly if not threateningly seductive, and in the distance mermaids are working their magic on a lone individual in a bowler hat. The whole composition evokes fantasies of erotic love.
Sleeping Venus (Delvaux) (1944)
Sleeping Venus (French: La Vénus endormie) is a 1944 painting by the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux. It depicts a reclining Venus surrounded by anguished people at a town square with classical buildings. It was painted in Brussels while the city was bombed during World War II and Delvaux wanted to contrast the psychological drama of the moment with the calm Venus. The painting has been in the collection of Tate in London since 1957.
Sleeping Venus depicts a town square flanked by classical buildings at night. To the right is a building with two horses' heads, based on decorations from the old Cirque Royal in Brussels, and at the back is a closed temple or temple-like building. The square is populated by several nude women with their arms stretched out as in desperation; in the foreground a woman enters from the right with an upset expression, and several women gesture while on their knees. To the left at the front are a standing skeleton and a clothed dressmaker's dummy. Dominating the picture at the front is a chaise longue in Empire style where a nude Venus figure reclines with closed eyes and her hands behind her head. Sleeping Venus is painted in oil on canvas and has the dimensions 172.7 cm × 199.1 cm (68.0 in × 78.4 in). It is signed "P. DELVAUX / 11-44".
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (1968)
The Sacrifice of Iphigenia (French: Le sacrifice d'Iphigénie) is a 1968 painting by the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux. Inspired by Iphigenia's sacrifice in Greek mythology, it depicts five people on a boardwalk. In the foreground are three women, two of whom might be the same person who watches herself, and behind them appears to be a scene of human sacrifice where a man overlooks a woman with an exposed breast.
Painted in oil on canvas, The Sacrifice of Iphigenia was made during a period when Delvaux frequently made references to classical mythology in his works. It uses ambiguous symbols and has been interpreted as a work about sexual initiation. It was exhibited at the 34th Venice Biennale in 1968.
The Anxious City
The Anxious City (French: La ville inquiète) is a painting made by Paul Delvaux in 1940–1941. It depicts a large number of upset people, most of whom are nude or partially nude, in front of a lake and classical structures. Among the characters who stand out are a naked self-portrait of Delvaux, a man in a bowler hat and a group of bare-breasted women. The man with the bowler hat made his debut in The Anxious City and would appear in several other Delvaux paintings.
Critics have focused on The Anxious City's complex composition, disquiet atmosphere and possible origin as a reaction to the German invasion of Belgium. It has been compared to works by Antoine Caron, Nicolas Poussin and René Magritte. The Anxious City was first exhibited in Brussels in 1944 and was part of the 1954 Venice Biennale. It was last sold at auction in 1998.
Night Train (painting) (1947)
Night Train (Le train de nuit) is a 1947 painting by Belgian artist Paul Delvaux, famous for his paintings of female nudes. The painting is 153 × 210 centimetres and is now in the Museum of Modern Art, in Toyama, in Japan.
Delvaux painted this artwork at a time when he felt trapped in a loveless marriage. He wished "to paint boredom, sadness and the desire to get away from it all... There is this nostalgic aspect about waiting rooms where people pass by briefly before leaving... I tried to capture the beauty of the waiting room in an empty station. People are not necessary, for a station has its own life".
Procession in Lace (1936)
Procession in Lace (French: Le Cortège en dentelles) is a painting executed by the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux in 1936. It shows a group of women walking toward a Roman triumphal arch. It was one of the first paintings in which Delvaux drew inspiration from Giorgio de Chirico and painted women reminiscent of mannequins, something he would continue to do throughout his career. Art historians have highlighted the painting's theatricality and described it as one of Delvaux's first major works.
A procession of women dressed in white lace garments follow a paved road that leads away from the viewer. Their faces are not seen as they head toward a Roman triumphal arch. In the far distance, another triumphal arch can be seen over the same road. The painting has the dimensions 115 cm × 158 cm (45 in × 62 in) and is painted in oil on canvas. On the bottom right, it is signed and dated "P. DELVAUX / 1-36".
The Temple (painting) (1949)
The Temple (French: Le Temple) is an oil on canvas painting by the Belgian artist Paul Delvaux, from 1949. It depicts a classical temple building in moonlight, with the head of a statue and several modern objects in the foreground. The painting was made in Choisel, outside Paris, where Delvaux lived temporarily with his lover and future wife Anne-Marie "Tam" de Maertelaere.
The Temple's combination of classical elements and modern objects was inspired by the works of the Italian painter Giorgio de Chirico. Critics have discussed how the anachronism creates a connection between the past and present, the significance of the intact temple, and how the painting evokes beauty and poetry. The painting is in a private collection and was last sold at auction in 2012.
Nos vieux trams bruxellois (1978)
station du prémétro / premetrostation
The Beautiful Night (1962)
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