Detail

The painter and graphic artist Paul Delvaux belongs to the Belgian group of surrealists as does Rene Magritte. The large oil painting “The School of Savants” from 1958 unites within it many of the characteristic surrealist means of painting. Isolated, to some degree lonely, figures stand in surroundings that are like a theatre scenery. In Delvaux’s oeuvre there are often melancholy female nudes. Here the unprotected nakedness of a sitting woman stands in sharp contrast to the gathering of scholars in dress coats deep in discussion. The exaggerated perspective allows a free view of a dreamlike, unreal landscape in the middle of the picture. The magic light that fills the room appears not to originate from the ceiling light nor the street lamps. Everything remains true to the postulate of making the unconscious visible, remains fantastical, inexplicable.