The son of a lawyer, the young Delvaux studied Greek and Latin; he absorbed the fiction of Jules Verne and the poetry of Homer, and these readings were to influence his artistic output throughout his career, beginning with his earliest drawings depicting mythological scenes. After studying architecture at the Académie Royale des Beaux-arts in Brussels, Delvaux pursued his passion to become a painter, and enrolled in classes taught by Constant Montald and Jean Deville. Actively encouraged by the artists Frans Courtens and Alfred Bastien, Delvaux became a prolific painter; he completed around 80 paintings between 1920 and 1925, also the year of his first solo exhibition. In these early works, he experimented with Impressionism creating colourful, naturalistic landscapes. It was not until the late 1920’s and early 1930’s that he began to execute the subjects for which he is best known; female nudes gesturing mysteriously, sometimes accompanied by skeletons, men in bowler hats or scientists, drawn directly from the stories of Jules Verne and each depicted in incongruous settings. These works, with their interruption of everyday scenes with inexplicable instances of the bizarre, reflect the influence both of the Flemish Expressionists, Costant Permeke and Gustave De Smet, and of the Belgian Surrealists. Delvaux, however, did not consider himself to be a Surrealist, “in the scholastic sense of the word”, as his works never incorporated the manifestly psychoanalytic references favoured by Dalì and Mirò, the protagonists of the Surrealist movement. The Metaphysical art of Giorgio de Chirico provided a stronger influence on the artist, as did the motifs of Magritte’s work, many of which Delvaux incorporated into his own paintings. Aside from the flattened style and distorted perspectives of the 1950’s, Delvaux was to repeat variations on the theme of mystical women set in a dream-like world for much of his career. In 1965, he was named Director of the Academié royale des Beaux-arts, and in 1982, the Paul Delvaux Museum opened in Saint–Idesbald.

This pen and wash study depicts two women in elegant dresses, capes and hats reminiscent of the simplicity and refinement of Renaissance fashion, which Delvaux became fascinated with after visiting Italy on several occasions in this period. The artist also greatly admired the work of Giorgio De Chirico and in sketches such as the present one, Delvaux depicts figures in a vast architectural setting very much inspired by the Italian surrealist. The figures appear to be set against a background of classical buildings, on which other figures are also briefly described. It is comparable to a number of similar sheets drawn between the late 40’s and early 50’s, such as Deux Femmes, dated 1949 and sold by Sotheby’s New York in 1985 (lot 165) (Photo Witt Library) and Femme assise, sold by Christie’s in 2011 (Lot 225, 10/02/2011).

This was a particularly serene time in the artist’s life and the effect of his new-found happiness was reflected in his work. If the subject of his work did not undergo major changes throughout Delvaux’s career, from the late 1940’s, his female nudes gradually appeared to lose their anguished erotic element. The expression on their faces became more harmonious, their eyes, characteristically larger than normal, now conveyed more romantic feelings of melancholy and nostalgia. Marcel van Jole expresses this well when he writes that “Eros a finalement pris les traits de l’Amour, de l’amour vrai.”2 He has no doubt to what caused this profound change of mood: a chance encounter in a newsagents in St Idesbald with Anne-Marie De Maertelaere (Tam), Delvaux’s great love of seventeen years earlier and realising that both he and 'Tam' still loved each other. The artist was to spend much of the next two years slowly extricating himself from his first marriage, before ultimately being able to live with 'Tam' and marrying her in 1952.

Notes
1. See P. Delvaux, la Fondation Paul Delvaux à la Fondation Pierre Gianadda, exhibition catalogue, 1987-1988, p.10: Dans ses rêves se manifeste une alienation du contexte: lieux et personages s’y rencontrent qui n’on rien de commun.
2. Marcel van Jole, in exhibition catalogue op. cit., p.13.