The man that in 1934 had met Surrealism

PAUL DELVAUX 1/3 – He was born in Antheit (Belgium), and studied architecture and decorative painting at the Royal Academy of Beaux-Arts in Brussels. His early paintings were primarily naturalistic landscapes and between 1920 and 1925 he completed about 80 such compositions. He was associated with the Surrealism art movement (although he never officially joined). His early works were in Expressionist style. The detailed nature of his works, manages to convey the world of his own imagination. You can admire his “The Awakening of the Forest”, http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/111642 at The Art Institute of Chicago.

PAUL DELVAUX 2/3 – His late 1920s works (mainly landscapes and nudes), were strongly influenced by Flemish Expressionist painters. In 1925 he enjoyed his first solo exhibition. In 1934, he saw the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico and Rene Magritte, and was converted to paint in a Surrealist manner for the rest of his life. In his opinion, Surrealism it was above all a reawakening of the poetic idea in art, the reintroduction of the subject but in a very particular sense, that of the strange and illogical. As he had say: I would like to create a fabulous painting, in which I would and could live. You can admire his “The Village of the Sirens”, https://www.museothyssen.org/ at The Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid.

PAUL DELVAUX 3/3 – Sometimes skeletons, or men in bowler hats accompany the women, a special theme he would repeat, for the remainder of his life. His paintings are nostalgic scenes, in which women often appear in the nude. His way of paint, it’s a special combination of photographic realism with a sense of mystery. His paintings became famous for were his female nudes and other dressed figures, who stare blankly as if in a trance. His famous paintings include: The Hands (1941, Claude Spaak Collection, Paris), Venus Asleep (1944, Tate Collection, London), and The Great Sirens (1947, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

The intellectual property of the images that appear in this blog correspond to their authors. The sole purpose of this site, is to spread the knowledge of these artists and that other people enjoy their works.