Water Nymphs (Les Nymphes des eaux)

Paul Delvaux was, with René Magritte, one of the major exponents of Surrealist painting in Belgium. Painted the year he participated in the international Surrealist exhibition in Paris, Delvaux's Water Nymphs centers on the activities of siren-like female bathers in the presence of a lone standing male figure dressed in a dark suit (very much reminiscent of Magritte’s iconic, often voyeuristic observers).

The work incorporates many of the features for which Delvaux is most famous: nude women who stare as if hypnotized, gesturing mysteriously, sometimes reclining, standing, or striding incongruously in spare, hybrid spaces of barren countryside or austere architectural settings. The hallucinatory quality of the imagery was emphasized by precise draughtsmanship and a strict adherence to the natural colors of his subjects. Delvaux’s preference was for nocturnal scenes because of their mysteriousness and their associations with childhood fears.