Les femmes devant la mer (Les ondines)

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.