''Sleeping Venus'' (french: La Vénus endormie) is a 1944 painting by

Paul Delvaux Paul Delvaux (; 23 September 1897 – 20 July 1994) was a Belgian painter noted for his dream-like scenes of women, classical architecture, trains and train stations, and skeletons, often in combination. He is often considered a surrealist, alt ...

. It depicts a reclining

Venus Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never fa ...

surrounded by anguished people at a town square with classical buildings. It was painted in Brussels while the city was bombed during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and Delvaux wanted to contrast the psychological drama of the moment with the calm Venus. The painting has been in the collection of

Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

in London since 1957.

Subject and composition

''Sleeping Venus'' depicts a town square flanked by classical buildings at night. To the right is a building with two horses' heads, based on decorations from the old

Cirque Royal The Cirque Royal (French) or Koninklijk Circus (Dutch) is an entertainment venue in Brussels, Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is b ...

in Brussels, and at the back is a closed temple or temple-like building. The square is populated by several nude women with their arms stretched out as in desperation; in the foreground a woman enters from the right with an upset expression, and several women gesture while on their knees. To the left at the front are a standing skeleton and a clothed dressmaker's dummy. Dominating the picture at the front is a

chaise longue A chaise longue (; , "long chair") is an upholstered sofa in the shape of a chair that is long enough to support the legs of the sitter. In modern French the term ''chaise longue'' can refer to any long reclining chair such as a deckchair. A ...

Empire style The Empire style (, ''style Empire'') is an early-nineteenth-century design movement in architecture, furniture, other decorative arts, and the visual arts, representing the second phase of Neoclassicism. It flourished between 1800 and 1815 durin ...

where a nude

figure reclines with closed eyes and her hands behind her head. ''Sleeping Venus'' is painted in oil on canvas and has the dimensions . It is signed "P. DELVAUX / 11-44".

Analysis and reception

This was the fourth painting titled ''Sleeping Venus'' made by

; the previous were made in 1932, 1943 and earlier in 1944. The subject had engaged Delvaux since a visit in 1929 or 1930 to the , a cabinet of curiosities that was part of the , which is a yearly

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

in Brussels. He was fascinated by the contrast between the fair, the monstrosities of the museum, and a

wax sculpture A wax sculpture is a depiction made using a waxy substance. Often these are effigies, usually of a notable individual, but there are also death masks and scenes with many figures, mostly in relief. The properties of beeswax make it an excell ...

of a sleeping Venus that was part of the museum's exhibition. This wax figure became the model for all his paintings of Venus. Delvaux made the fourth ''Sleeping Venus'' in Brussels while the city was bombed during

. He said he wanted to express the psychological "drama and anguish" of the moment and contrast it with "the calm of Venus". The art historian Virginie Devillers says all of Delvaux's Venus paintings portray a state between sleep and wakefulness and share their contrast between calm and violence. The paintings from 1944 stand out due to their involvement of other characters, and the second of them differs from the first with its outdoors setting and more dramatic staging, expressing the tension of a particular time and place. The historian of politics Jill Locke uses the painting as a meditation on shame and politics, and says its images of the calm, shamelessly nude Venus, the upset mourners and the seemingly abandoned political buildings can be viewed as an ambivalent depiction of "threat, stasis, and possibility".

Provenance

Carlo van den Bosch in

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

purchased ''Sleeping Venus'' from Delvaux in 1944. It was purchased by Baron Urvater in 1957 for presentation at

in London, where it has been since then. The English rock band

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 200 ...

used a detail as cover art for the single "

Dark Entries "Dark Entries" is a song by the English gothic rock band Bauhaus, released as a stand-alone single in January 1980 by Axis (an early name for 4AD) and later issued on 4AD and Beggars Banquet. It features the 1944 painting '' Sleeping Venus'' b ...

" in 1980.

References

{{Paul Delvaux 1944 paintings Paintings by Paul Delvaux Paintings of Venus Collection of the Tate galleries Moon in art Skulls in art

Subject and composition

Analysis and reception

Provenance

See also

References