Robert Detheux - Beautiful female nude - 1951

Description of the work

Created in 1951, this painting on paper depicts a female nude treated with great economy of means. The silhouette, sketched with rapid touches of purple, gray, and white, stands out against the raw background. The inclined posture and lowered face convey a silent and meditative interiority. More than an anatomical study, the work expresses a poetic fragility, suspended between presence and erasure.

Interpretation

Through the spontaneity of the gesture and the sobriety of the palette, the artist seeks to capture emotion rather than resemblance. This nude thus becomes the site of an inner truth, where suggestion takes precedence over description. The work bears witness to an expressive research specific to the early 1950s, marked by the desire to renew the representation of the body after the upheavals of the post-war period.

Technical notice

* Artist: Robert Detheux (1932-2010)

* Title: Female Nude

* Date: 1951

* Technique: Painting on paper (gouache and ink)

* Dimensions: 45cm x 30.5cm

* Signature: Signed lower left

* Condition: good overall condition, slight signs of age on the edges of the paper, visible in the photos

* Frame: Unframed

Origin

Collection of the artist's family.

Biography

Robert Detheux (1932-2010), born in Brussels, established himself in the 1950s as a unique figure on the Belgian art scene. Close to Surrealist and Dadaist circles, he developed a visual language in which imagination and poetry interact with modernity. His early works, such as this 1951 nude, reveal an interest in expressive figuration and the quest for inner truth. In the 1960s, he explored the tensions between mechanics and lyricism, figuration and abstraction. From the 1970s onward, he moved toward a freer abstraction, while maintaining the expressive intensity that characterized his entire career.

Sending
The artwork, unframed, will be carefully packaged and protected for shipping.