Paul DELVAUX (Antheit, 1897 - Furnes, 1994) Lot n° 4

The Anatomy Cabinet From the series: Les derniers beaux jours 1978 - 1979 Watercolour enhanced etching Signed lower right and numbered E/A lower left 65 x 49.5 cm With The Anatomy Cabinet and Les derniers beaux jours, Delvaux depicts three figures that are dear to him: a woman, a man and a skeleton. A woman, a man and a skeleton. The artist places the female figure at the centre of his creations. Although women are often naked and erotic, this is not the case here. On the contrary, the man embodies a scientist, he is serious, threadbare and adopts an incomprehensible posture. It is the skeleton in the background that catches the eye, however. For Delvaux, the skeletons represent the future of Man, almost cynical, more alive than the two flesh-and-blood beings in the foreground.