Three paintings by Belgian artist Paul Delvaux that have not come to market in more than three decades will hit the auction block at Christie’s Surreal Evening Sale in London on March 4 with estimates that range from £500,000 to £2 million (about $620,000 to $2.5 million). Works by Delvaux, who died in 1994 at the age of 96, are scarce, and the appearance of three of his paintings in a single sale is unprecedented, according to the house.
The three pictures—Les belles de nuit (1936), estimated at £500,000 to £1 million; La ville endormie (1938), £1.2 million to £1.8 million; and Nuit de Noël (1956), £1 million to £2 million—belonged to a private collector who was “passionate only about Delvaux,” according to Olivier Camu, Christie’s deputy chairman, who leads the house’s Surrealist art team in London. Delvaux’s current auction record is $10.7 million, achieved in 2016, according to the Artnet Price Database. The three works have not been seen in museum exhibitions since the 1970s.
“He definitely had the best,” Camu said in a phone interview, while declining to name the collector, whom he knew for 30 years. The man died last year, and his estate has consigned them, he said. “There has never been three Delvaux in one single sale. The works are all in fantastic condition.”
Born in what is now Wanze, Belgium, Delvaux studied painting at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. The influence of canonical figures like Giorgio de Chirico, René Magritte, and Salvador Dalí can be seen in his meticulous, poetic compositions. But while he has often labeled a Surrealist, he kept his distance from the circle. “He was also influenced by Renaissance paintings,” Camu said, adding that Delvaux’s portrayal of nude women in a “pensive and thoughtful” manner is another one of his signatures.
Two works come from Delvaux’s “best years,” 1935 to 1941, according to Camu. In Les belles de nuit (1936), which was once owned by the famed Surrealist patron Edward James, two semi-clothed women pose at in front of classical architectural structures, set against a backdrop inspired by the Belgian “Pays Noir,” or black country. Behind them stands another mysterious woman facing the opposite direction.
La ville endormie, a large canvas work from two years later, is part of the artist’s cityscapes series, and is comparatively complex. The painting features women who are nude or semi-clothed amid what appears to be ruins of buildings from different time periods. In the foreground, on the left, Delvaux is present.
The third painting, from 1956, is the closest in style to de Chirico, depicting a mysterious young girl at a deserted train station, illuminated by a full moon.
Surrealism has been strong on the auction block lately. New records were set last year for Magritte ($121.2 million) and Leonora Carrington ($28.5 million). Camu said that he thinks Surrealist figures will remain important for collectors who are interested in tracing their influence. “For me, Surrealism is the most important art historic movement of the 20th century, because it went beyond the form,” he said. “It went into our subconscious and the psychology.”