Paul Delvaux

Private Collection (acquired from the artist)

Acquired from the above by the present owner

Brussels, Paul Delvaux, Musée d'Ixelles, 1967, no. 62

Humlebaek, Louisiana Museum, 6 Surrealister, 1967, no. 14

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Six peintres surréalistes, 1967, no. 26, illustrated in the catalogue

L'Aquila, Castello Spagnolo, Alternative Attuali 3. Rassegna internazionale d'arte contemporanea, 1968, no. B.13, illustrated in the catalogue

Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Rétrospective Paul Delvaux. Peintres, aquarelles, encres, 1969, no. 70, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen, Paul Delvaux, 1973, no. 65, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Knokke-Heist, Casino, Paul Delvaux, 1973, no. 54, illustrated in color in the catalogue

New York, The New York Cultural Center & Houston, The Museum of Fine Arts, Painters of the Mind's Eye, Belgian Symbolists and Surrealists, 1974, no. 84, illustrated in the catalogue

Mexico City, Museo de Art Moderno, Tres Mestros de la Imaginacion, Ensor, Magritte, Delvaux, 1974, no. 45, illustrated in the catalogue

Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art & Kyoto, National Museum of Modern Art, 1975, n.n., illustrated in the catalogue

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Hommage à Paul Delvaux, 1981

São Paolo, Hommage à Paul Delvaux, XVI Biennale Sao Paolo, 1989-1990

Kyoto, Daimaru Museum of Art; Tokyo, Isetan Museum of Art; Himeji, Himeji Museum of Art & Yokohama, Museum of Fine Arts, Paul Delvaux, 1991

Paris, Grand Palais, Paul Delvaux, peintres et dessins 1922-1982, 1997

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Paul Delvaux 1897-1994, 1997, no. 108, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Okazaki, Okazaki Mindscape Museum; Osaka, Kintetsu Museum of Art & Kitakyushu, Kitakyushu Municipal Museum of Art, The Masters of Surrealism, 2004

Sint-Idesbald, Fondation Paul Delvaux, Portraits et autoportraits de Paul Delvaux, 2004-05

Niigata, Museum of Fine Art; Miyazaki, Museum of Art; Fukuoka, Fukuoka Art Museum; Matsuzakaya, Matsuzakaya Museum of Art & Nagoya, Fukushima Museum of Art, Portraits et autoportraits de Paul Delvaux, 2006-07

Bielefeld, Kunsthalle, Paul Delvaux, Das Geheimnis Der Frau, 2007-08

Sint-Idesbald, Fondation Paul Delvaux, Odyssée d'un rêve, 2009

Liège, Musée du Grand Curtius, De Demain à Delvaux, 2010

London, Gagosian Gallery, Crash, 2011

Paul-Aloise de Bock, Paul Delvaux, L'Homme. Le Peintre. Psychologie d'un Art, Brussels, 1967, illustrated pl. 168

Paul Caso, "La Vie artistique, Paul Delvaux au Musée d'Ixelles," Le Soir, Brussels, November 30, 1967

Serge Young, "Le Musée d'Ixelles fête le soixante-dixième anniversaire de Paul Delvaux," Synthèses, Brussels, February 1968, p. 120

J. Dypreau, "Le Monde de Paul Delvaux," XXe Siècle, Paris, June 1968, illustrated p. 64

Jacques Meuris, 7 Dialogues avec Paul Delvaux, accompagné de 7 lettres imaginaires, Paris, 1971, illustrated pp. 118, 121, 123 & 125

Francine Ghysen, "Paul Delvaux: Le peintre de l'attente," Femmes d'aujourd'hui, Brussels, May 17, 1972, illustrated p. 146

Antoine Terrasse, Paul Delvaux, Paris, 1972, illustrated p. 32

Antoine Terrasse & Jean Saucet, Paul Delvaux, Berlin, 1972, illustrated p. 32

Marc Rombaut, Paul Delvaux, New York, 1990, illustrated no. 115

"Hommage à Paul Delvaux en un panorama de soixante oeuvres," La Libre Belgique, Brussels, July 13, 1973

Michel Butor, Jean Clair & Suzanne Houbart-Wilkin, Delvaux, Brussels, 1975, no. 301, illustrated p. 268

Jacques Sojcher, Paul Delvaux ou le passion puérile, Paris, 1991, illustrated p. 220

David Scott, Paul Delvaux, Surrealizing the Nude, London, 1992, illustrated p. 87

This work is in excellent condition. Very mild periodic frame abrasion to the extreme edges. Under UV light, two spots of inpainting to the reclining nudes right thigh, otherwise fine.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Replete with some of the artist's most iconic motifs, Le canapé bleu embodies Delvaux's aesthetic magnificently. Luxuriating nudes play out an ambiguous narrative in the foreground while the background provides an ineffable sense of place. The setting here seems to occillate between a cinematic stage set, a domestic space and a train station. The train - an element that appears in many of Delvaux's works - is only hinted at through the tunnel and red light at the upper left corner of the composition. The viewer is left with an eerie feeling of erotic anticipation and excitement - a sensibility that pervades many of his earlier compositions as well, including Les cariatides from 1946 (fig. 1).

Although Delvaux's paintings are renowned for their hallucinatory imagery, the artist claimed not to be a disciple of Sigmund Freud and did not invest his compositions with the psychoanalytic references favored by Dalí, Miró and his fellow Belgian, René Magritte. Delvaux's approach to painting was more subtle in its representation of the uncanny: without being overtly grotesque or offensive with his imagery, he would interrupt the peacefulness and banality of a given scene with instances of the bizarre. Many of these pictures present a modern architectural setting, like a railway station, loggia or a street corner, that is populated by expressionless and oddly lifeless women, usually depicted in the nude. The passivity of these women recalls the gentle beauty of a Botticelli or the flawlessness of a Bouguereau and adds a certain sense of timelessness to the composition. 

Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque writes of the artist in the context of the Surrealists: "There is no need whatsoever of psychological analyses 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. In this the artist agrees with the thinking of Breton who declared that the more the relationships between two connected realities were distant and exact, the more powerful the image would be. More than Delvaux the painter, it was Delvaux the surrealist poet whom Eluard and Breton hailed because his pictorial universe exists out of time, eludes fashion and defies any attempt at classification" (G. Ollinger-Zinque, Paul Delvaux 1897-1994 (exhibition catalogue), Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, 1997, p. 27).

Delaux was fascinated with the effects of light and shadow in his pictures, and Le canapé bleu demonstrates his virtuosic ability in this sense. He creates triangular planes of light emanating from specific sources - the ceiling lamp above the stairs, the cinematic light pole at left and the hint of a light in the background that suggests an oncoming train. The scene as a whole takes on an unsettling incandescence, and the viewer is left to consider the oddities of this 'twilight zone.' Discussing Delvaux's fascination with light in his paintings, Barbara Emerson has written, "Delvaux uses light to great effect, almost as if he were manipulating theatrical equipment of spots and dimmers.  With consummate skill, he contrasts cool white shafts of moonlight with the warm, gentle glow from an oil lamp" (Barbara Emerson, Delvaux, Paris and Antwerp, 1985, p. 174).