DELVAUX, Paul (Antheit, 1897 – Furnes, 1994)
Paul Delvaux was born in Antheit (Belgium) on 23 September 1897, but his family lived in Brussels. From 1910 to 1916 he studied Greek and Latin, and started to be interested in art.
In 1920, after obtaining, with some difficulty, parental approval, he enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts. He also started painting landscapes, views of cities and his first train stations. In 1923, he had his first group exhibition at the Galerie Giroux in Brussels, which he shared with René Magritte. He was influenced by the Flemish expressionists, in particular by Constant Permeke. In 1934 he discovered Surrealism and De Chirico in the exhibition Minotaure, at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. That was the decisive turning-point in his career. Another important influence was his discovery in 1930 of the Spitzner Museum at the Foire du Midi in Brussels, a collection of curiosities showing, in the form
of wax models, congenital deformities and diseases. In spite of these influences, Delvaux developed a style of his own which would never be copied. In 1937, he lost his father and married Suzanne Purnal. In 1938, he participated in the Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme at
the Galerie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Éluard dedicated to him his poem Exil and Breton integrated him in his book Painting and Surrealism. In 1952, Delvaux got divorced and married Anne-Marie de Martelaere, his first love. He nicknamed her “Tam” and only her death (21 December 1989) separated them. From 1950 to 1962 he taught painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels (E.N.S.A.V.), La Cambre, in Brussels. From 1952, he began painting murals: for the Casinos in Ostend and Brussels; for Gilbert Périer’s house (1954–56); for the Palais des Congrès (1959) and the underground (1978). In 1976 he became a member of the Institut de France. In 1979 he created the Fondation Paul Delvaux in Saint-Idesbald, where a museum was opened in June 1982. Delvaux died on 20 July 1994 in Furnes, where ha had been living for a long time. He is buried in the local cemetery.
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