Delvaux, Paul

Delvaux, Paul,

1897–1994, Belgian painter. Delvaux, influenced by Magritte and Chirico, created meticulous surreal compositions based on Renaissance ideas of perspective and peopled with self-absorbed somnambulists. Often containing an ironic eroticism, Delvaux's visionary paintings allude to the double standards of Victorian sexual morality. His Venus Asleep (1944) is in the Tate Gallery, London.