保羅·德沃爾

Josias Carneiro Leão, Brussels & Jakarta

Sale: Galerie G. Giroux, Brussels, March 12, 1955, lot 20

Harry N. Abrams, New York (1975)

Fischer Fine Art, London (acquired by 1975 and sold: Sotheby’s, London, June 28, 1978, lot 49)

Acquired on August 18, 1979

Antwerp, Meir, Salle des fêtes, L’Art contemporain, Salon 1935, 1935, no. 63

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Paul Delvaux, 1936, no. 3

The Hague, Esher Surrey Art Galleries, Paul Delvaux, 1937, no. 7

Charleroi, Salle de la Bourse, XXXIe Salon du Cercle Royal Artistique et Littéraire de Charleroi. Rétrospective Paul Delvaux, 1957, no. 30

Basel, Galerie Beyeler, Surréalisme et peinture, 1974, no. 67, illustrated in color in the catalogue

London, Fischer Fine Art, Universe of Art IV, 1974, no. 51, illustrated in the catalogue

Tokyo, Musée National d’Art Moderne & Kyoto, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paul Delvaux, 1975, no. 3, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Paul-Aloïse De Bock, Paul Delvaux. Der Mensch. Der Maler, Hamburg, 1965, p. 34

Paul-Aloïse De Bock, Paul Delvaux. L’Homme, Le Peintre, Psychologie d’un Art, Brussels, 1967, no. 19, illustrated p. 63

Jerome Peignot, "Visite à Delvaux", Connaissance des Arts, Paris, May 1969, no. 207, p. 83

Jose Vovelle, Le Surréalisme en Belgique, Brussels, 1972, no. 205, illustrated p. 171

René Micha, "Au-delà du surréalisme," Clés pour les Arts, Brussels, May 1974, no. 43, p. 19

Michel Butor, Jean Clair & Suzanne Houbart-Wilkin, Delvaux, Brussels, 1975, no. 69, illustrated p. 167

David Scott, Paul Delvaux: Surrealizing the Nude, London, 1992, no. 10, illustrated p. 31

Very good condition. Original canvas. There is some minor frame abrasion at around perphery, and a small puncture at the extreme edge, lower left, which is covered by the present frame. The paint layer is stable.
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.

La Place publique, also known by the titles Méditation and Place des Martyrs, dates from the height of the Surrealist movement in the mid-1930s.  This picture was one of the artist's first Surrealist compositions, created only a year after having seen a landmark exhibition of the international Surrealists, including Dalí, Ernst, Magritte, Miró, Tanguy and de Chirico, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels.  The show was a revelation to him, changing his perspective and approach to art forever.  "For me surrealism represented freedom to disobey the rationalist logic that to some extent at least had governed, up to then, the act of painting as well as the relations between what I call the elements, as much in nature as in painting," Delvaux later explained.  "This logic once transcended, these relationships appeared in a new light as much at the intellectual level as at the visual, and there suddenly sprang up an awareness of quite different mental relations between objects and people.  When I dared to paint a Roman triumphal arch with, on the ground, lighted lamps, the decisive step had been taken.  That event was an absolutely extraordinary revelation for me.  It was a major revelation for me to understand that all constraints on creativity disappeared when painting finally uncovered to my eyes its deepest and thus its most essential revelatory powers.  Painting could, I realised, have a meaning of its own, it confirmed in a very special way its capacity to play a major emotional role..." (quoted in J. Meuris, '7 dialogues avec Paul Delvaux accompagnés de lettres imaginaires', in Le Soleil Noir, Paris, 1971, p. 87).

With his paintings from 1935, including the present composition, Delvaux would introduce thematic elements that heightened the emotional atmosphere of the scene.  Set in the Place des Martyrs in Brussels, the composition is intentionally jarring, with its depiction of the emotionless nude standing amidst the severe neo-classical architecture. Vulnerability, isolation and a general sense of the unexpected pervades the scene, due in no small part to the inexplicable presence of the nude woman in the center of the composition.  Delvaux was adamantly opposed to assigning any significance to the female figures, often nude, who appeared in his compositions.  "I do not feel the need to give a temporal explanation of what I do, neither do I feel the need to account for my human subjects who exist only for the purpose of the painting.  These figures recount no history:  they are.  Further, they express nothing in themselves" (quoted in ibid.,p. 22)  Their presence, none the less, is what makes his compositions so psychologically compelling. 

The first owner of the present work was Josias Carneiro Leão, the Brazilian ambassador to Brussels.  Leão was relocated by political appointment to the Embassy in Indonesia in 1960, and it is presumed that he sold this picture around this time.