Executed in 1953, La Légende egyptienne is a striking and exceedingly rare example of Paul Delvaux’s artistic vision. Departing from the Neoclassical imagery that underpinned much of his oeuvre, here Delvaux explores another important Surrealist inspiration: the enigmatic and oneiric world of ancient Egypt. Though Delvaux’s oeuvre abounds with references to ancient Rome and Greece, often recontextualized within his crepuscular dreamworld of modern expanses, the present work is the only extant painting by the artist to feature themes from the mesmeric realm of North Africa.

The discovery of the Rosetta Stone during the Napoleonic campaigns in 1799 shed some light on the lives and customs of the ancient Egyptians, but it was the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb in 1922, and the subsequent worldwide press coverage, that sparked a new wave of interest in the period. For the Surrealists, the rich and cosmic mythology of ancient Egypt had an immediate appeal.

As Marc Kober writes: “it is easy to see how the multitude of major and minor gods… might appeal to a surrealist mind, because it reflects an inexhaustible imagination. Moreover, the Egyptian pantheon is characterized by permanent creation. Indeed, the power of metamorphosis and that of the imagination are two of surrealism’s cardinal values” (Marc Kober, “The Magic Powers of Ancient Egypt: Georges Henein, André Breton and Horus Schenouda,” Dada/Surrealism 19, 2003, pp. 3-4).

Echoing the great murals and friezes of Egyptian tombs, Delvaux’s subjects in La Légende egyptienne are depicted from a close vantage point and featured on a large scale. The scene is dominated by the regal figure of the king at right; his crown carries the uraeus or upright snake that symbolized the pharaohs’ power and was commonly found in ancient depictions. The women in the composition, though archaically dressed, are the same, more modern women that populate all of Delvaux’s paintings and their presence emphasizes the deliberate anachronism of the corrugated roofing and ship’s mast that appear in the background.

Apart from these elements, the remarkable and schematic flatness of the background combines with the curtain to emphasize the theatrical nature of the scene before us. This device, used frequently by both Delvaux and his compatriot René Magritte, exaggerates the artificiality of the scene and so increases its inherent mystery. This blend of reality and sur-reality captures the essence of what made the ancient Egyptian world so seductive to Delvaux’s contemporaries.

As Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque observes: “Delvaux expresses his mysteries through his images… although all the components of his paintings are realistic, the complete image is not. In it the dream world and the natural world fuse to create the extraordinary…. It is made of simplicity and reality. It is the blossoming and affirmation of poetry by means of the contrasts that exist between the great monumental figures and the anachronistic settings in which they move…. His pictorial universe exists out of time, eludes fashion and defies any attempt at classification” (Exh. Cat., Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Paul Delvaux, 1897–1994, 1997, pp. 25-27).

As its intellectual leader, André Breton had immense influence on the Surrealist movement, and his own fascination with the discoveries of the ancient world permeated writings and artworks from the period. Breton made contact with the contemporary and influential Egyptian Surrealist group Art et Liberté and his own collection of Egyptian artefacts was part of the infamous mur display in his studio.

The imagery of pyramids, deserts and sphinxes pervades his writing, as they pervade the canvases of many of his fellow Surrealists. From Salvador Dalí’s imagined otherworld with its permanent desert of ghosts and unexplained (or inexplicable) presences, to Leonor Fini’s evocation of the sphinx and Victor Brauner’s hieroglyphic forms, ancient Egypt was a formidable presence in the Surrealist (sub)conscience.

Thus, Delvaux’s engagement with ancient Egypt must be seen within this broader context, although his approach is, as always, distinctive. In fact, his invocation of Egypt is similar in essence to his use of imagery and motifs from ancient Greece and Rome; these polytheistic cultures provided a setting at once familiar and strange, as well as access to a world in which the fantastic was an accepted part of the everyday. Crucially, they allow him to create the sense of the uncanny which permeates works like La Légende egyptienne, making them so eerily compelling.

The only extant painting to feature the theme of ancient Egypt, La Légende egyptienne stands as an exceptional work in Delvaux’s oeuvre and critical link in the scholarship on the artist. In 2024, a study of Delvaux’s works in Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique revealed a hidden composition on the reverse of the artist’s 1957 Train du soir. Underneath a thick layer of white paint, scientific imagery revealed the guise of a pharaoh as seen from the front—the only other known painted depiction by the artist to feature such motifs.