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Lot Essay
This work is sold with a photo-certificate from the Foundation Paul Delvaux.
The late 1920s were transformative years for the young Paul Delvaux. He had abandoned his early experimentations with Impressionism and begun his journey into the world of the enigmatic, the mental, the distinctly personal. As well as being drawn to the work of his nearby colleagues de Smet, Permeke and Ensor, his work was heavily influenced by Modigliani, as is evident in the elongated face and almond eyes are typical of Delvaux’s portraits of the period. He discovered a fellow ‘loner’ in Giorgio de Chirico in the Paul Guillaume Gallery in 1927. Soon after he would be introduced to the work of surrealists Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Joan Miró and René Magritte. It was also at this time that his relationship with Anne-Marie Demartelaere (Tam) began to flourish and while they were separated he wrote her many letters and painted picture memories of her.
Despite his experiences in Paris Delvaux, was already on the path to finding his own personal form of expression – in fact it was his personal mission. He favoured his home in the Meuse countryside and the Flemish landscape provides a backdrop to many of his paintings of the time, including, Nu. But, in Nu, the landscape is merely a framework. No greater prominence could be given to the key figure, to whom he would pay the most sublime homage for his entire career, “The Woman”. Nu belongs to the series featuring large-format nudes that Delvaux embarked on in 1929 which would sustain his concentrated attention throughout 1930. Like the figures in Grand nu rose and Figures dans la forêt of 1929, the woman fills the frame with her magnificent frontality. Of his exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-arts in February 1931, Jules Destrée, Minister for Arts wrote: ‘Here at last is someone who does not do the same thing as everyone else around him. He has an uncontestable originality to which is added charm, seduction and refreshing beauty…The large nudes are of major importance. They are of a completely new conception.’ (J. Destrée Les Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 13 Feb 1931.).
Works from this series are extremely rare in Delvaux’s oeuvre as a large number of them have not survived to the present day. Figures of this period have a solid, classical quality, executed in an earthy palette with stylised faces featuring distinctively large almond-shaped eyes that prefigure the wide-eyed surreal figures to follow in the next phase of Delvaux’s career.
The late 1920s were transformative years for the young Paul Delvaux. He had abandoned his early experimentations with Impressionism and begun his journey into the world of the enigmatic, the mental, the distinctly personal. As well as being drawn to the work of his nearby colleagues de Smet, Permeke and Ensor, his work was heavily influenced by Modigliani, as is evident in the elongated face and almond eyes are typical of Delvaux’s portraits of the period. He discovered a fellow ‘loner’ in Giorgio de Chirico in the Paul Guillaume Gallery in 1927. Soon after he would be introduced to the work of surrealists Max Ernst, Jean Arp, Joan Miró and René Magritte. It was also at this time that his relationship with Anne-Marie Demartelaere (Tam) began to flourish and while they were separated he wrote her many letters and painted picture memories of her.
Despite his experiences in Paris Delvaux, was already on the path to finding his own personal form of expression – in fact it was his personal mission. He favoured his home in the Meuse countryside and the Flemish landscape provides a backdrop to many of his paintings of the time, including, Nu. But, in Nu, the landscape is merely a framework. No greater prominence could be given to the key figure, to whom he would pay the most sublime homage for his entire career, “The Woman”. Nu belongs to the series featuring large-format nudes that Delvaux embarked on in 1929 which would sustain his concentrated attention throughout 1930. Like the figures in Grand nu rose and Figures dans la forêt of 1929, the woman fills the frame with her magnificent frontality. Of his exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-arts in February 1931, Jules Destrée, Minister for Arts wrote: ‘Here at last is someone who does not do the same thing as everyone else around him. He has an uncontestable originality to which is added charm, seduction and refreshing beauty…The large nudes are of major importance. They are of a completely new conception.’ (J. Destrée Les Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 13 Feb 1931.).
Works from this series are extremely rare in Delvaux’s oeuvre as a large number of them have not survived to the present day. Figures of this period have a solid, classical quality, executed in an earthy palette with stylised faces featuring distinctively large almond-shaped eyes that prefigure the wide-eyed surreal figures to follow in the next phase of Delvaux’s career.