Jean Delville

The Belgian painter Jean Delville, born in Leuven in 1867 as Jean Libert, situated his practice within Symbolism while extending it through poetry, writing and art theory. He trained at the Royal Atheneum and the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels, where he was a student of Jean-François Portaels, and published his first poems in 1888 in the journal La Wallonie. According to the sources, his work is characterised by esotericism and philosophical idealism. This orientation is also evident in his commitment alongside Joséphin Péladan: in 1894, Delville created the sets for the tragedy Babylone.

In October 1895, he received the Belgian Prix de Rome for painting. The following year, he organised the first of three Salons of Idealist Art, conceived as a showcase for esoteric and mystical tendencies. These initiatives attest to a practice not limited to painting, but also encompassing organisation and reflection on art. Delville taught at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels and at the one in Mons; his period in Brussels is dated from 1907 to 1937. In 1924, he was appointed a member of the Fine Arts class of the Royal Academy of Belgium.

Several paintings provide a concrete point of reference for this work. L’École de Platon, an oil on canvas dated 1898, is held at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. L’Ange des splendeurs, painted in 1894, and Les Trésors de Satan, dated 1895, are oils on canvas held at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium. The catalogue of works also includes Orphée et Eurydice, a pastel signed at the upper right, measuring 66 × 49 cm, which was offered at auction in a carved neo-Gothic frame. Jean Delville died in Forest, in the Brussels region, in 1953.

Works recorded at auction