116
116
Delvaux, Paul
AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("PAUL DELVAUX") TO HIS FRIEND JULES PAYRÓ, 22 FEBRUARY 1957
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116
Delvaux, Paul
AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("PAUL DELVAUX") TO HIS FRIEND JULES PAYRÓ, 22 FEBRUARY 1957
Estimate
Hash Mark
Only used in United Kingdom Book catalogues. As the majority of lots in a book catalogue will be defined as books for VAT purposes and therefore not liable to VAT on either hammer price or buyers premium, this symbol is used to indicate where the lot does not meet the appropriate definition. The lot will be sold subject to the margin scheme and an amount in lieu of VAT at 20% will be charged upon the premium only
2,000 — 3,000
GBP
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Details & Cataloguing

Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental and Russian Books

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Delvaux, Paul
AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED ("PAUL DELVAUX") TO HIS FRIEND JULES PAYRÓ, 22 FEBRUARY 1957
in French, detailing his travels to Italy and Greece by car with his brother and sister-in-law, from Brussels via the Ardennes, Munich and Austria, then Merano and into the Veneto, describing the works of art he saw, including the frescoes by Giotto in Padua ("très beaux mais très effacés, la couleur a perdu son éclat"), the statue of condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni by Verrocchio and Carpaccio's depiction of St George in Venice, conveying enthusiastically his very detailed observations of the Acropolis ("La Parthénon et l'Acropole [...] la plus forte impression du voyage [...] on traverse les Propylées et une fois dehors le Parthénon apparait majestueusement sur la droite, et à gauche, le [...] Erechteion, tout petit et si pur dans sons architecture ionique elegante").

7 pages in all, 8vo (210 x 135mm.), including a full-page sketch of the Acropolis, Boitsfort, 22 February 1957


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Literature

Zachary Barthelman and Julie Van Deun, Paul Delvaux, odyssée d'un rêve (Saint-Idesbald, 2007), p.226

Catalogue Note

This letter, which is in fact a travelogue, and the very detailed sketch of the Acropolis show Delvaux's great interest in antiquity - in particular architecture and sculptures - which becomes evident in so many of his paintings. Payró, the recipient of the letter, a fellow student of Delvaux and lifelong friend, who would become Professor at the University of Buenos Aires, published an important article about Delvaux in the newspaper La Nación of 13 September 1925, praising him: "His works are not only studies [...] Everything indicates that they contain the beginnings of a work that will develop in a climate and a tone of exceptional originality."

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Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts and Continental and Russian Books

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