Paul Delvaux

Galerie Robert Finck, Brussels (acquired from the artist)
Acquired from the above by the family of the present owner circa 1966

Ostende, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paul Delvaux, 1962, no. 29
Brussels, Galerie Robert Finck, Exposition de peinture belge moderne, 1963, no. 36, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum, Werkelijkheid en Verbeelding. Belgische surrealisten, 1964, no. 10, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Brussels, Musée d’Ixelles, Paul Delvaux, 1967, no. 17
Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paul Delvaux, 1969, no. 38, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Paul Delvaux, 1973, no. 42, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Knokke-Heist, Casino, Paul Delvaux, 1973, no. 34, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Paul Delvaux, 1897–1994, 1997, no. 70, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Les Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 3rd May 1963, no. 1014, illustrated p. 14
Léon-Louis Sosset, 'De Rik Wouters à Anne Bonnet', in Les Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 10th May 1963, no. 1015, p. 7
Paul-Aloïse De Bock, Paul Delvaux, L’Homme, Le Peintre, Psychologie d’un Art, Brussels, 1967, no. 89, illustrated in colour p. 157; details illustrated pp. 158–59
R. C. Kennedy, 'Paul Delvaux', in Art and Artists, London, 7th October 1969, illustrated p. 37
Depuis 45, Brussels, 1970, p. 108
Antoine Terrasse, Paul Delvaux, Paris, 1972, illustrated pp. 48–49
Antoine Terrasse and Jean Saucet, Paul Delvaux, Berlin, 1972, illustrated pp. 48–49
La Vie à Charleroi, Charleroi, December 1973, no. 4, illustrated p. 19
Michel Butor, Jean Clair and Suzanne Houbart-Wilkin, Delvaux, Lausanne and Paris, 1975, no. 184, illustrated p. 224

La Naissance de Vénus is an important example of Delvaux’s talent for representing the elegance and beauty of the uncanny. This work was painted in 1947 at a point in the artist’s career when he had established himself, alongside René Magritte, as the best known Surrealist artist in Belgium. Throughout the 1930s and early 1940s, Delvaux exhibited his work in several of the international Surrealist exhibitions organised by André Breton. These exhibitions helped him to earn his place among the daring avant-garde artists of the day, including Max Ernst, Salvador Dalí and fellow Belgian artist, René Magritte. Although his paintings were occasionally considered controversial for their frank depictions of nudity and unabashed sensuality, Delvaux’s work was widely regarded for its alluringly mysterious subject matter and the exquisite modelling of its figures. The present painting was featured in several prominent exhibitions throughout Europe in the 1960s, and was recently shown in 1997 at a major retrospective of the artist’s work in Brussels.

Delvaux commonly depicted scenes from myths and legends, such as Léda of 1948, now in the collection of Tate Modern, London, as the fantastical nature of their subject matter was well suited to the artist’s tastes. In the present painting, Delvaux presents a modern interpretation of one of the best known stories of classical mythology. The birth of goddess Venus from the foam of the sea had been a favourite subject for artists since the Renaissance, perhaps most famously depicted by Sandro Botticelli in the 15th century (fig. 1). In the present work, the artist alludes to the Botticelli in the positioning of the figures within the composition, but he updates the picture with elements of realism that were absent in the Renaissance version. Rather than positioning her on a scalloped seashell, Delvaux places Venus on a tiled, seaside veranda that is covered by a glass archway. The clipper ship, which is docked alongside a pier with a modern searchlight, is perhaps a substitute for the Zephyr in the Botticelli version. Despite these adaptations, Delvaux maintains a sense of timelessness in this composition, as his figures stare vacantly off into the distance and are literally divested of any of the accoutrements of daily life.

The image of nymphs bathing, occupying the left half of the composition, takes its subject from an earlier painting, Les Nymphes se baignant of 1938 (fig. 2). While in the earlier version the women are clearly posing in front of the painter and the viewer, their alluring character combined with a certain sense of menace, in La Naissance de Vénus they are depicted with a softer, more delicate quality. Rather than threatening the observer with their forward, seductive poses, they seem to be absorbed by their own playful activity, unaware of the painter’s presence. With their graceful bodies adorned only by flowers in their hair, they are other-worldly creatures, belonging to a realm of dream and fantasy. These women resemble the sirens, another mythical creatures that captured Delvaux’s imagination, and glorified in works such as La Sirène of 1949 (fig. 3).

Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque has written about the haunting beauty of these mystical depictions: 'Delvaux expresses his mysteries through his images, sources of poetry and disorientation, since 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 […] There is no need whatsoever of psychological analysis or psychoanalytical interpretations, which by the way the artist firmly rejected, to understand the world of Paul Delvaux. 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' (G. Ollinger-Zinque, Paul Delvaux, 1897–1994 (exhibition catalogue), op. cit., pp. 25 & 27).

Fig. 1, Sandro Botticelli, La Nascita di Venere, circa 1485, tempera on canvas, Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence
Fig. 2, Paul Delvaux, Les Nymphes se baignant, 1938, oil on canvas, Private Collection
Fig. 3, Paul Delvaux, La Sirène, 1949, oil on panel, Southampton City Art Gallery, Southampton
Fig. 4, Paul Delvaux and Princess Paola in front of the present work, during the 1967 retrospective exhibition at the Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels