Robert Detheux (1932-2010) - Beau nu féminin allongé ( 1952 )

Reclining female nude (1952) is a Chinese ink work created by Robert Detheux in the early 1950s, a formative period of his artistic language. This piece reflects an already mastered approach to the female body, treated as a silent presence, both sensual and internal, devoid of any narrative anecdote.

Technical sheet
Artist: Robert Detheux (1932–2010) Belgium
Lying female nude
Date: 1952
Chinese ink on paper
Dimensions: 50 × 24.5 cm

Condition: Very good
Unframed: Sold unframed

Sent: Artwork sent flat, carefully protected.

Description of the work

The composition adopts an elongated horizontal format, in which Detheux depicts a nude female figure, stretched out and viewed from the side. The body develops within a continuous and fluid line, almost calligraphic, which crosses the surface of the paper with restraint and precision.

The dense, deep black ink forms a compact background from which the silhouette emerges through a play of reserves and retreats. The clear, incisive yet measured lines define the contours of the body without resorting to descriptive modeling, favoring the suggestion of volumes and the breathing space of emptiness.

The surface of the paper, marked by slight irregularities and the trace of the gesture, gives the whole a subtle vibration. The figure seems suspended in a state of inner calm, between physical presence and meditative retreat.

Artistic context

This work is part of the research conducted by Robert Detheux in the early 1950s, a period when he explored the female nude as a field of formal and sensitive experimentation. The influence of Belgian Surrealism is expressed here indirectly: without narration or explicit symbolism, the body becomes a mental space, stripped of any anecdote.

Through the sobriety of the line and the depth of black, Detheux achieves a form of plastic purity where the gesture is reduced to the essential. This ink reflects an early balance between technical mastery and interiority, foreshadowing the more rigorous directions of his later work.

Stylistic analysis

In this youthful nude, Detheux already affirms a conception of the body as a silent and autonomous form. The line does not explain; it suggests; black does not describe, it envelops. This restraint gives the work a contained intensity, far from any excessive illustrative or expressive dimension.

The drawing reveals a particular attention to the continuity of the body and its relationship to space, elements that will become central in his work in the following decades.

Born in Brussels in 1932, Robert Detheux is a recognized figure of late Belgian surrealism. His graphic work explores the body, memory, and metamorphosis through a streamlined language based on the primacy of line and the density of chiaroscuro. He passed away in 2010, leaving behind a rare, coherent, and profoundly introspective body of work.

Provenance
The artist's family collection

A unique and original work, 'Nu féminin allongé' (1952) is a particularly accomplished testament to Robert Detheux's youth period. Through mastery of black, the sobriety of the drawing, and the quality of the line, this Chinese ink offers a timeless interpretation of the female body, both sensitive and rigorously constructed.