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Lot Essay
By the time Nu couch, a highly poetic and possibly pivotal work, was painted, Paul Delvaux had gone through ten years of working as an artist, years of training and experimentation which had ended in a series of works deemed expressionistic, influenced not only by James Ensor (1860-1949) and Constant Permeke (1886-1952) but also, amongst others, Modigliani and Picasso's post-World War I neoclassical nudes. One of the major events of those years was the death on New Year's eve 1932-33 of the artist's mother; an event which, according to some critics, released the artist from his inhibitions towards the female nude and erotic subject matter and which therefore enabled the development of a more personal style.
Nu couch, painted in March 1934, can be seen as a pivotal work in that it is situated exactly between the expressionistic works of Delvaux and his Surrealist oeuvre. Of course elements of change in the artist's style appear briefly before Nu couch. A confrontational and total nudity appears in La Vnus Endormie (October 1932). An awkward atmosphere with classical architectural elements in the background appears in Nu Au Lever (November 1932). But looking at the sequence of paintings in the catalogue raisonn clearly shows that the picture immediately preceding the present work and titled La Dame Rose (March 1934) (see fig. 1) is the last expressionist painting by Delvaux, while Femmes et Pierres (June 1934) (see fig. 2) is completely surreal with a dreamlike silent atmosphere, an awkward landscape punctuated by classical architecture and two mysterious and disturbing female nudes.
In the present work one notes a toning down of colours away from expressionism and towards a more unreal simplified palette. The nude appears as if seen in a dream. This surreal Olympia confronts the viewer in total nudity, taking all the space within the frame and occupying all of the minimal and cold empty room in the same way that she would occupy the viewer's or the artist's mind. Her large dreamy black eyes are looking straight at us. It seems that this could be called Delvaux's first Surrealist picture. Certainly one can say that Delvaux was yearning for something radically new and that deep down he was ready for his encounter with the works of the Surrealist Group that was to take place a few weeks later at the exhibition organised by Albert Skira's Surrealist review Minotaure in Brussels.
Nu couch, painted in March 1934, can be seen as a pivotal work in that it is situated exactly between the expressionistic works of Delvaux and his Surrealist oeuvre. Of course elements of change in the artist's style appear briefly before Nu couch. A confrontational and total nudity appears in La Vnus Endormie (October 1932). An awkward atmosphere with classical architectural elements in the background appears in Nu Au Lever (November 1932). But looking at the sequence of paintings in the catalogue raisonn clearly shows that the picture immediately preceding the present work and titled La Dame Rose (March 1934) (see fig. 1) is the last expressionist painting by Delvaux, while Femmes et Pierres (June 1934) (see fig. 2) is completely surreal with a dreamlike silent atmosphere, an awkward landscape punctuated by classical architecture and two mysterious and disturbing female nudes.
In the present work one notes a toning down of colours away from expressionism and towards a more unreal simplified palette. The nude appears as if seen in a dream. This surreal Olympia confronts the viewer in total nudity, taking all the space within the frame and occupying all of the minimal and cold empty room in the same way that she would occupy the viewer's or the artist's mind. Her large dreamy black eyes are looking straight at us. It seems that this could be called Delvaux's first Surrealist picture. Certainly one can say that Delvaux was yearning for something radically new and that deep down he was ready for his encounter with the works of the Surrealist Group that was to take place a few weeks later at the exhibition organised by Albert Skira's Surrealist review Minotaure in Brussels.