Art History News: Paul Delvaux at Auction

Christie’s’ Art of the Surreal 27 February 2018

Paul Delvaux

The Sabbath, 1962 - Paul Delvaux

Le Sabbat (The Sabbath) by Paul Delvaux (1962, estimate: £1,500,000 - 2,500,000), one of the most important paintings from the second half of the artist’s career, is being offered by the artist’s family. In many ways Delvaux’s Le Sabbat can be seen as a painterly invocation of the night, the subject that had preoccupied the artist and sustained the mysteries of his art from the 1930s onwards. Delvaux takes the traditional North European subject of Walpurgi snacht or the Witches’ Sabbath and transforms it into a strangely erotic and rather genteel midnight garden party taking place near a railway junction in a suburb of Brussels.

Sotheby’s London, 1 March 2017 Surrealist Art Evening Sale

Paul Delvaux

Filles au bord de l’eau

oil on canvas

Painted in 1966.

Estimate: £1,700,000-2,200,000

Giving a glimpse into Delvaux’s fantastical imagination, Filles au bord de l’eau is an alluring and sophisticated example of his Surrealist creation – bringing together the key elements that defined the artist’s mysterious works.

This dream-like scene depicts at once an interior and exterior setting, as architectural elements such as the blue door, mirrors and window frames suggest the conventional structure of a house even as the walls have dramatically opened onto an impressive seascape. The principal protagonist defines the atmosphere of the painting as one of stillness and expectation, with her expressionless gaze and lingering hand gesture directed outside of the composition.

The nude women that surround her recall the gentle beauty of a Botticelli, adding a

sense of timelessness to the scene. Throughout his lifetime, Delvaux refused to provide any sort

of narrative for his compositions – stating ‘these figures recount no history: they are’ - leaving the viewer to contemplate the perplexing scene.

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 Paul Delvaux’s Le miroir sold for £7.3 million in February 2016

Christie's 2017

Two works are being offered by The Art Institute of Chicago. Paul Delvaux’s Le village des sirènes, created in 1942, one of the best years in Delvaux’s oeuvre, at the very height of the German occupation of Belgium, portrays an otherworldly scene, in which a group of elegantly dressed women sit along a gently curving street with mermaids swimming beyond. The silence conveyed offers a startling contrast to the chaos of the war that was raging in Europe at this time while the disconcerting and anachronistic architectural juxtapositions and disquieting atmosphere reveal a strong affinity with the art of Giorgio de Chirico.

Sotheby's 2016

Paul Delvaux Le Miroir (1936) Estimate: £5,500,000-7,500,000

In this monumental painting Delvaux presents an encounter of disparate elements, juxtaposed in such a way as to create a world of mystery. Depicting at once an interior and an exterior setting, there is an ambiguity in the relationship between the two figures. The nude woman is associated with nature and beauty, whilst the decaying room with its peeling wallpaper may well serve as a metaphor for the woman’s spiritual state. The first owner of Le Miroir was Sir Roland Penrose, who was himself a painter as well as a friend of many Surrealist artists and an avid promoter of their work.

Sotheby's SURREALIST ART EVENING SALE 03 FEBRUARY 2015

Paul Delvaux
Le Train Bleu or La Rue Aux Tramways
Oil on board 122 by 244cm; 48 by 96in.
Painted in November 1946 Est. £2.5 - 3.5 million

Painted in November 1946, Paul Delvaux’s monumental work Le train bleu, alternatively known as La rue aux tramways, is one of the most important and remarkable paintings from the peak of his career. Although the artist was acquainted with the leading figures of the Surrealist group, including André Breton and Paul Eluard, his form of Surrealism remained unique. Capturing the modernity of the urban landscape juxtaposed with the sensuality of the nude form, this monumental work is an exceptional example of the paintings he was producing at this critical time in his oeuvre.

Replete with some of the artist's most iconic motifs, Le canapé bleu embodies Delvaux's aesthetic magnificently (est. $3.5/5 million). Luxuriating nudes play out an ambiguous narrative in the
foreground while the background provides an ineffable sense of place. The setting seems to
oscillate between a cinematic stage set, a domestic space and a train station. The train -
an element that appears in many of Delvaux's works - is only hinted at through the tunnel and red light at the upper left corner of the composition. The viewer is left with an eerie
feeling of erotic anticipation and excitement - a sensibility that pervades many of his earlier compositions as well, including

Les cariatides from 1946, sold by Sotheby’s in May 2011.

Sotheby’s London Surrealist Art Evening Sale on 5 February 2013

Painted in 1941, Les Courtisanes (est. £1-1.5 million)is an exceptional example of Paul Delvaux's painting. As in his finest compositions, it combines the motif of mysterious female nudes placed against a classically inspired architectural backdrop. Demonstrating the influence on Delvaux of Cézanne - in the composition, spacing and individual poses of the nudes, and in the overall concept of a bathing scene - the painting depicts the figures on a balcony by the sea, dominated by the large sky. The nudes and semi-nudes that we see before us in the guise of bathers by the sea are no doubt the courtesans referred to in the title of the work.

Sotheby's 2015