Temporary Exhibition

Paul Delvaux: A Walk with Love and Death

The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum presents an exhibition devoted to Belgian painter Paul Delvaux (1897-1994), an artist represented in both the Museum’s permanent collection (Woman in the Mirror, 1936) and the Carmen Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection (The Viaduct, 1963). After an initial stage marked by Flemish Expressionism, Delvaux discovered Surrealism and experienced the influence of Magritte and Giorgio de Chirico. Delvaux’s world has an unmistakable dreamlike quality. His female figures wander like sleepwalkers through nocturnal scenarios, displaying to the viewer their nudity, cold and sensual at the same time. Conducted in conjunction with the Musée d’Ixelles, this exhibition brings together over fifty works by the painter, coming from public and private collections in Belgium, especially the Ghêne collection. The exhibition covers five great themes in Delvaux’s iconography: Eros and Thanatos; the reclining Venus; the obsession with the Double; classical architecture and train stations; and finally, the Dance of Death.