Paul Delvaux (1897-1994)
Paul Delvaux (1897-1994)

Les femmes devant la mer (Les ondines)

Details
Paul Delvaux (1897-1994)
Les femmes devant la mer (Les ondines)
signed and dated 'P. DELVAUX 8-43' (lower right)
oil on canvas
40 1/2 x 64 1/2in. (105.5 x 166.5cm.)
Painted in August 1943
Provenance
Lou Cosyn, Brussels
Suzanne van Damme, Brussels
Staempfii Gallery, New York
Morton D. May, St. Louis
Marlborough Gallery, London
Literature
Horizon, London, January 1946, vol. XIII, no. 73 (illustrated opposite p. 33).
Alpha Encyclopdie, Paris 1969 (illustrated in colour p. 1892).
Art International, Lugano, 20 March 1972, vol. XVI, no. 3 (illustrated p. 5).
M. Butor, J. Clair & S. Houbart-Wilkin, Paul Delvaux, catalogue de l'oeuvre peint, Brussels 1975, no. 129 (illustrated p. 201).
Exhibited
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paul Delvaux, December 1944-January 1945, no. 34.
Lisbon, IX Premio Lissone internazionale per la pittura, 1955 (illustrated fig. 134, p. 94).
Charleroi, Salle de la Bourse, XXXIe Salon du Cercle Royale Artistique et Littraire de Charleroi: Hommage Marc Chagall - Rtrospective Paul Delvaux, March-April 1957, no. 44.
New York, Staempfii Gallery, Paul Delvaux, 1969.
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Masters of the IXth and XXth Centuries, Summer 1972, no. 18 (illustrated in colour p. 39).
Brussels, Muse Royal des Beaux-Arts, Paul Delvaux 1897-1994, March-July 1997, no. 50 (illustrated in colour p. 107).

Lot Essay

This strange disquieting painting executed in 1943 in the midst of the Nazi occupation of Delvaux's native Belgium depicts the bleak grey Belgian coast on a windy day. The foam from the choppy waves on the surface of the sea extends in a distant perspective from the shoreline to an empty horizon at the centre of the painting. In the foreground two women, naked, holding hands, and seemingly born of these waves like Aphrodite, walk towards some wooden steps that lead out of the painting towards an unknown destination. To their left a group of mermaids riding on the waves seemingly applaud the arrival of something that remains hidden behind the two women. For Delvaux, mermaids were synonymous with the sirens of Greek mythology whose song was so sweet that it lured sailors to their death on the rocks that surrounded their island home. Yet, the strongest quality of this painting is its pervasive silence, the song of the sirens and the rhythm of the waves seem stunted by the awkward dreamlike quality of the picture.

A strange irredescent light from outside the picture pours onto the steps and into foreground of the picture, casting strong shadows on the sand, it is apparently welcomed by the leading woman who basks in its glare. This radiant, unknowable light shines in direct contrast to the rest of the painting that is dark with the expectation of rain. The docks of a gas plant - the only seemingly masculine element of the painting - appear ominous in their darkness as do the heavy clouds hanging over the charcoal sea. All the elements of this mysterious landscape add together however to convey the essence of Delvaux's most consistent theme; the cold erotic attraction of woman. Alluring in their naked sexuality Delvaux's women seem cold like stone and, like statues, are ultimately unobtainable; troubling and obscure objects of desire.

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