Paul Delvaux

Claude Spaak, Belgium (commissioned from the artist)
Private Collection (by descent from the above)
Private Collection (acquired from the above and sold: Sotheby's, London, February 5, 2014, lot 60)
Acquired at the above sale

Brussels, Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Paul Delvaux, 1997, no. 203, illustrated in the catalogue

Claude Spaak, "L'Orage," in Le Pays des miroirs, Contes et nouvelles, Paris, 1962, pp. 13-23

(I) Executed on cream wove paper, laid down on card which is taped to the mount at the reverse of the upper and lower corners. Some remants of glue to the border of the card, not affecting the work. (II, III & IV) Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount at the reverse of the upper and lower corners. There is a very faint spot of foxing in the lower centre (IV). This work is in very good condition.
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1. Drawing for the title page
2. Parfois il monte au grenier
3. Mais le dénouement approche, il le sait
4. La fin est arrivée

These four masterful drawings are the direct product of one of the most important connections of Delvaux’s career. Delvaux was introduced to Claude Spaak by his brother, the future Prime Minister of Belgium, Paul-Henri, who had shared classes with the artist at secondary school in Saint-Gilles. Spaak was a leading member of the artistic scene in Brussels, appointed as the first director of the Société auxiliaire des expositions du Palais des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles in 1929. It was at the Palais des Beaux-Arts that Delvaux was granted his first major solo exhibition in 1933 and Spaak provided support and encouragement for the young artist throughout his career. It was through the auspices of Spaak that Delvaux became acquainted with the Surrealist art of René Magritte.

The present series was commissioned by Claude Spaak to illustrate his story L’Orage first published in 1962. In L’Orage, Spaak tells the story of a writer who, in order to escape from an unhappy love-affair and financial distress, goes to live in isolation. At first he takes walks about the countryside in between writing sessions, but gradually the lush setting of the woods nauseates the writer and he is forced to stay indoors. One morning he awakes to find his house completely surrounded by rats, so numerous that the grass appears as a writhing field of grey. Filled with fear and disgust, the writer prepares his house against invasion, blocking all the doors and windows, only to find that a rat has entered through his chimney. After dispatching the intruder, the protagonist lights a fire in the grate, building it up fiercely to prevent further intrusion, as represented in the first drawing in the sequence. In the second and third Delvaux captures the oppressive nature of the besieged house, and the writer’s growing despair as the creatures swarm above his head on the roof and as he runs out of wood to keep the fire alight. Preferring to fight his way out, rather than wait for the rats to invade, the writer boldly charges outdoors, only to end up lodged between the horns of a bull which happened to be passing by at that moment. In the fourth drawing Delvaux reimagines this conclusion, depicting instead a surprise encounter between the writer and a mysterious nymph. Delvaux depicts this ghoulish story with intricately drawn details and soft washes, his media aptly expressing the psychological anxieties and ambiguities that are central to Spaak’s writing.