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Lot Essay
For a few years before executing the present painting, Paul Delvaux's world had been dominated by mermaids, referred to as L'Epoque des Sirènes.
A new theme appeared in 1951, in Les demoiselles du téléphone. In a large and pure blue sky, three towering telephone poles veer over three young women in a kind of supernatural oppression. All of them are seen from the waist up, two in profile, and the third facing us directly exposing her breasts. They are dressed in flowing costumes inspired by the Italian Renaissance, which stand in sharp contrast to the austere, linear symbols of contemporary life.
Henri Bauchau, the celebrated writer and poet, wrote the following poem for the present work:
"Loin des gares buissonières
Des matins de cerfs-volants
Les nuits dans le songe blanc
Des fenêtres d'écolières
Va le rouge-gorge au vent
Douce gorge des amants
O la fuite librement
Des trains de mélancolie"
(H. Bauchau, Ecriture 9, Lausanne 1973, p. 147)
A new theme appeared in 1951, in Les demoiselles du téléphone. In a large and pure blue sky, three towering telephone poles veer over three young women in a kind of supernatural oppression. All of them are seen from the waist up, two in profile, and the third facing us directly exposing her breasts. They are dressed in flowing costumes inspired by the Italian Renaissance, which stand in sharp contrast to the austere, linear symbols of contemporary life.
Henri Bauchau, the celebrated writer and poet, wrote the following poem for the present work:
"Loin des gares buissonières
Des matins de cerfs-volants
Les nuits dans le songe blanc
Des fenêtres d'écolières
Va le rouge-gorge au vent
Douce gorge des amants
O la fuite librement
Des trains de mélancolie"
(H. Bauchau, Ecriture 9, Lausanne 1973, p. 147)