Paul Delvaux

Paul Delvaux, an outsider who began developing his surrealist compositions of female dream figures after 1930, is one of those artists who spent his life researching one theme, producing some of the most captivating motifs ever. His paintings show a type of young, fairylike woman with long blonde hair and dark eyes. The figures seem like statues in images whose perspective runs very deep into the space. Much has been written about the eroticism of these mostly unclothed creatures, about their relationship to psychoanalysis, Christianity, and male sexuality. Delvaux assigned his women not only their own visual space, influenced by de Chirico and Magritte, but also mirrors, skulls, and locomotives, for instance, as allegories.