Robert Detheux (1932-2010) - Le Chat en suspens

Artist: Robert Detheux 1932-2010 Belgium

The Suspended Cat
Dimensions: 48 cm x 35 cm
Condition: Good
Signature and date: Signed at the bottom right, not dated (around 2005).

Frame: Sold unframed
Shipment: Will be sent flat, carefully protected.

Robert Detheux – Series The Cats (circa 2005)

This work, from the series Les Chats de Robert Detheux, comes from the same set as the drawings created around 2005. Although undated, it fully shares the same visual language, atmosphere, and formal explorations, confirming its belonging to this pivotal period in the artist's oeuvre.

Description of the work

In 'Le Chat en suspens,' Detheux presents a fragmented feline face, as if caught in an unfinished appearance. The drawing, created with pencil and highlights of white chalk, favors a loose, almost trembling line that surrounds and traverses the form without ever fixing it definitively.
The cat's gaze, asymmetrical and deeply expressive, is the focal point of the composition. The features overlap, cross, and dissolve, creating a sensation of constant vibration. The snout and mouth emerge from a denser area, while the rest of the body dissolves into the paper.
The material of the support, warm and slightly nuanced, accentuates the overall gentle melancholy. The cat seems to float in an indeterminate space, as if suspended between presence and disappearance.

Artistic context

In the series Les Chats, Robert Detheux uses the feline figure as a means of inner exploration. The cat is not depicted as a domestic animal but as a silent, attentive, almost mediumistic entity.
This work illustrates the approach of Belgian poetic surrealism, where form is born from withdrawal, suggestion, and the unfinished. The drawing does not aim to describe but to allow a mental presence to emerge, stemming from dreams or the unconscious.

Comparison and influences

The freedom of line, the fragmentation of form, and the tension between appearance and disappearance evoke Balthus's expressive sobriety, particularly in his way of slowing down the gaze and suspending time.
We can also evoke a kinship with Leonor Fini in the symbolic approach to the cat, envisioned as an interior figure, both fragile, sovereign, and enigmatic.

Biography

Born in Brussels in 1932, Robert Detheux is an important figure in Belgian surrealism. His work, characterized by restraint, silence, and a great sensitivity to chiaroscuro, explores the realms of dreams and the unspoken. Primarily a draftsman, he developed a graphic language made of suggestion, slowness, and erasure. He passed away in 2010, leaving behind a rare and deeply poetic body of work.

Provenance
The artist's family collection

Unique and original work, 'Le Chat en suspens' stands out for the vitality of its line and the expressive depth of its gaze. As part of the series 'Les Chats' and with its atmosphere of inner floating, this piece serves as a particularly sensitive testimony of Robert Detheux's exploration of mystery, silence, and invisible presence.