Paul Delvaux

Sidney Janis, New York

Staempfli Gallery, New York (acquired by 1959)

Jean-Louis Merckx, Brussels

Richard Lucas, Brussels

Mme Jean Krebs, Brussels

Joachim-Jean Aberbach, New York (acquired by 1967)

Joe Mallim, New York

Sale: Sotheby’s London, 29th November 1988, lot 83

Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Antwerp, Salle des fêtes, L’Art contemporain. Salon 1947, no. 74 (titled La rue aux tramways)

Venice, Belgian Pavilion, XXVIII Esposizione internazionale d'arte, 1954

New York, Staempfli Gallery, Paul Delvaux, 1959, no. 15, illustrated in the catalogue

Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Exposition Paul Delvaux rétrospective, 1969, no. 32, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Stuttgart, Württemburgische Kunstverein, Belgische Künstler von der Jahrhundertwende bis zur Gegenwart. Malerei - Graphik - Plastik, 1963, no. 67

Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Figuratie. Defiguratie, 1964, no. 70

Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte Moderna & Lisbon, Secretariado Nacional da Informaçao, A Pintura Belga contemporanea de 1920 a nossos dias, 1965-66, no. 29

New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art & Chicago, Dada, Surrealism and their heritage, 1967, no. 70, illustrated in the catalogue

Rotterdam, Museum Boijmans-van Beuningen, Paul Delvaux, 1973, no. 39, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Knokke-Heist, Casino, Paul Delvaux, 1973, no. 30, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Ostend, PMMK, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Van Ensor tot Delvaux. Ensor. Spilliaert. Permeke. Magritte. Delvaux, 1996-97, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts du Belgique, Paul Delvaux 1897-1994, 1997, no. 66, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Les Arts plastiques, Brussels, 1948, illustrated p. 32

Paul Delvaux (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Drouin, Paris, 1948, illustrated

Emile Langui, Paul Delvaux, Venice, 1949, illustrated pl. XXX

Art Digest, New York, 25th May 1954, illustrated p. 14

Anton de Ridder, De levende kunst gexien te Venetië, Brussels, 1958, illustrated p. 292

Les Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 25th June 1964, no. Spécial, illustrated p. V

Jean Dypréau, ‘Le train bleu - Peinture Vivante’, Cultura, vol. II,  Brussels, 1964-65, illustrated in colour pl. 12

Paul-Aloîse de Bock, Paul Delvaux, Brussels, 1967, illustrated in colour pl. 85

Die Kunst, Munich, July 1968, no. 7, illustrated p. VII-2

William S. Rubin, Dada and Surrealist Art, London, 1969, illustrated in colour pl. XXXVII

José Vovelle, Le Surréalisme en Belgique, Brussels, 1972, mentioned p. 200

Jean-Jacques Leveque, ‘Paul Delvaux l'énigmatique’, in La Galerie, February 1972, no. 113, mentioned p. 42

Antoine Terrasse, Paul Delvaux, Paris, 1972, illustrated p. 50

Antoine Terrasse & Jean Saucet, Paul Delvaux, Brussels, 1972, illustrated p. 59

Patrick van der Straeten, ‘Paul Delvaux’, in Rénovation, 11th October 1973

Michael Butor, Jean Clair & Suzanne Houbart-Wilkin, Delvaux, Brussels, 1975, no. 178, illustrated p. 220

The board is stable and is supported by a layer of resin and set into a backing board. There are some minor nicks at intervals to the extreme edges, not visible when framed. There are two very minor spots of retouching, one in the upper left corner and the other to the sky on the right of the upper framing edge and a very small spot near the lower edge to the right of the artist's signature, visible under ultra-violet light. Along all four edges the tack heads have been retouched. This work is in very good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although slightly fresher in the original.
"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. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Paul Delvaux’s monumental work Le train bleu, alternatively known as La rue aux tramways, is one of the most important and remarkable paintings from the height of his career. In 1946 Delvaux lived for a short while in Paris working on a set of illustrations for Claude Spaak. Although the artist was already acquainted with the Surrealist group, having occasionally exhibited at André Breton’s International Surrealist Exhibition since 1938, he was drawn closer to the leading figures of the day after being introduced to Paul Eluard at Roland Penrose’s house. However, Delvaux’s idiosyncratic form of Surrealism was left unblemished by the highly competitive spirit of Parisian Surrealism, and Le train bleu is an exceptional example of the enchanting and highly complex painting which he was producing at the time. Le train bleu presents the elision of two contrary forces often found in Delvaux’s art - the sensual and the mechanical. The skyline is graced by classical tympanae and colonnades of distant temples which contrast with electrical power lines, smoke stacks and the weaving trams, in a scene which William Rubin has described as the ‘Flemish counter-part of a Chiricoesque piazza [fig. 1]; elsewhere the ambiance suggests a surrealist equivalent of the antique Hellenism of Puvis de Chavannes’ (W. Rubin, op. cit., London, 1969, p. 315).

The mysterious oil paintings of Paul Delvaux are regarded as some of the most alluring examples of Surrealist Art. His paintings are renowned for their hallucinatory scenarios and dream-like imagery, as well as their serene atmospheres; echoed in the present work by the inscription ‘paix sur la ville’ which adorns the white wall behind the seated figure’s head. Many of these pictures present a highly original urban setting which is populated by enigmatic women, usually depicted in the nude. The central motif of the present work are the passing trams which divide the composition. Trains and trams were an integral part of the Delvaux’s world, and he included them in a great number of paintings (figs. 2 & 3), as he explained: 'I loved trains and my nostalgia for them has stayed with me, a memory from youth. I don't attach any special significance to that, nothing to do with departure, but more an expression of a feeling. I paint the trains of my childhood and through them that childhood itself. The pictures of stations and trains do not represent reality. There remains the strange, a spectacle perhaps? I know that despite the pleasure I have in painting them, railways and stations are somewhat limiting subjects, but wrenching them out of normality has the opposite effect and pushes the subject towards the universal' (quoted in Paul Delvaux 1897-1994 (exhibition catalogue), Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts du Belgique, Brussels, 1997, p. 27).

The subtle rendering of light and shade in the present work exemplifies the artist’s debt to traditional forms of representation. Barbara Emerson has written of the way that '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' (B. Emerson, Delvaux, Paris & Antwerp, 1985, p. 174). In Le train bleu the artist explores his fascination with the conventions of perspective in western painting dating back to the Renaissance. He creates spatially-illogical cityscapes with contradicting visual evidence; the figure on the left appears to inhabit an alternate plane of existence, framed by the doorway in much the same way as a painting. The spatial ambiguities are offset by the pair of female figures on the right, who await the arrival of the trams beneath a typical station canopy decorated with painted fretwork, though their revealing attire is yet another startling element of this visually-engaging composition.

Although Delvaux's paintings are renowned for their hallucinatory imagery, the artist claimed not to be a proponent of the writings of Sigmund Freud and did not invest his compositions with psychoanalytic references favoured 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. The title of the present work merely identifies the central motif of the scenario, and as such denies any conclusive interpretation.

Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque writes of the artist in the context of the Surrealists: 'There is no need whatsoever of psychological analyses or psychoanalytical interpretations [...] to understand the world of 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 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' (quoted in Paul Delvaux 1897-1994 (exhibition catalogue), Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts du Belgique, Brussels, 1997, p. 27).

As with most of his paintings, the meaning behind this scene is mysterious, and several hypotheses can be made about the presence of the female figures and the incongruity of the architectural elements. But throughout his lifetime, the artist resisted providing any sort of narrative for these pictures, stating quite clearly, '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 my painting.  These figures recount no history: they are.  Further, they express nothing in themselves...' (quoted in ibid, p. 22).