Robert Detheux (1932-2010) - Portrait spectral – 2008
02
days
21
hours
09
minutes
24
seconds
 | €1 |
|---|
Catawiki Buyer Protection
Your payment’s safe with us until you receive your object.View details
Trustpilot 4.4 | 142824 reviews
Rated Excellent on Trustpilot.
Robert Detheux, Portrait spectral – 2008, mixed media on brown-tinted paper, 50 × 45 cm, original edition, created in 2008, signed, in good condition, Belgium, sold by owner or dealer.
AI-assisted summary
Description from the seller
Robert Detheux (1932-2010) – Spectral Portrait – 2008
Artist: Robert Detheux (Brussels, 1932 – Tournai, 2010)
Title of the work: Spectral portrait
Date: 2008
Signature: Signed and dated “Detheux 2008” at the bottom left.
Technique: White chalk and charcoal on brown-toned paper. The face is modeled with tight hatching of chalk, outlined with free charcoal lines. The background is not a wash added: the paper, tinted through and through, carries the drawing.
Dimensions: 50 × 45 cm
Condition: Good overall, as expected for a studio sheet. The line is crisp, the chalk adheres well, the facial modeling is legible. Soft, textured paper, with halos, slight tonal variations and a few conservation spots, without any damage to the drawing.
Sold unframed.
Provenance: Artist’s studio collection (acquired directly).
Description:
Late portrait of Robert Detheux, created in 2008, two years before his passing. The face is no longer described: it emerges. A head of a child or an androgynous figure, tilted, rising from the brown paper with only white chalk.
The eyes, heavy and almost closed, the mouth barely indicated, the ear sketched on the right give the figure this floating presence of the final years.
The modeling is built with parallel hatching, tight on the forehead, cheek and neck, looser in the hair.
Around it, the charcoal remains open: strands, shoulder contour, a long stroke that joins the signature. Nothing is closed. The head seems half-out of the support, like an apparition that the paper still restrains.
The warm brown of the background, the white of the chalk and the black of the scarce accents — pupils, signature, a few contours — are enough. No added color, no decoration.
We are in the last manner of Detheux: the graphic surrealism of the 1950s has been reduced to a face, and this face no longer poses. It bursts forth.
Signed, dated, of good format and from a period when the spectral portrait becomes the sole subject: a characteristic sheet from the late years, for lovers of Belgian drawing sensitive to buried figures and apparitions.
Artist’s biography:
Born in Brussels in 1932 and deceased in Tournai in 2010, Robert Detheux is a singular figure in Belgian art of the 20th century. A graduate of the Saint-Luc Institute of Fine Arts in Brussels, he taught graphic expression at the Academy of Tournai until 1996, while pursuing a personal, highly coherent body of work.
From the 1950s, he established himself with a very personal surrealist and graphic language. He received the Prize for Young Belgian Painting in 1953, 1954 and 1971.
The following decades deepen the same territory. 1970s: body and female face, hybrid figures, textures. 1980s-1990s: grotesque, eroticism, dark humor. 2000-2010: spectral portraits, apparitions, creatures. This sheet belongs to that last period.
Little exhibited during his lifetime, Detheux worked freely. The discovery of his studio archive (nearly 1,500 works) made this coherence visible.
His drawing, demanding and immediately recognizable, now attracts collectors of Belgian Surrealism, in Belgium, Spain and across Europe.
Seller's Story
About SR Fine Art
With nearly 28 years of experience in the art market, I am passionate about rediscovering artists’ studios and bringing their works to a wide audience on Catawiki.
I specialize in Belgian and European modern and contemporary art. My flagship collection is the studio archive of Robert Detheux (nearly 1,500 works on paper). I also offer surrealist drawings, beautiful abstract paintings from the 1950s, magnificent nude photographs by Michel Pinel, contemporary paintings, Cobra compositions, and works by Marcus de Vestele, Gundi Falk, René Mels, Eugène Eechaut and many others.
From intimate drawings to large formats, there is something for every taste and every budget. The vast majority of my auctions start at 1 € with no reserve price, giving everyone the chance to acquire unique pieces.
Every shipment is prepared with the utmost care using professional museum-quality packaging to ensure perfect condition upon arrival.
Join my growing community of satisfied clients and follow my new auctions to discover rare works from these exceptional studios.
Thank you for your trust and happy bidding!
SR Fine Art
Translated by Google TranslateRobert Detheux (1932-2010) – Spectral Portrait – 2008
Artist: Robert Detheux (Brussels, 1932 – Tournai, 2010)
Title of the work: Spectral portrait
Date: 2008
Signature: Signed and dated “Detheux 2008” at the bottom left.
Technique: White chalk and charcoal on brown-toned paper. The face is modeled with tight hatching of chalk, outlined with free charcoal lines. The background is not a wash added: the paper, tinted through and through, carries the drawing.
Dimensions: 50 × 45 cm
Condition: Good overall, as expected for a studio sheet. The line is crisp, the chalk adheres well, the facial modeling is legible. Soft, textured paper, with halos, slight tonal variations and a few conservation spots, without any damage to the drawing.
Sold unframed.
Provenance: Artist’s studio collection (acquired directly).
Description:
Late portrait of Robert Detheux, created in 2008, two years before his passing. The face is no longer described: it emerges. A head of a child or an androgynous figure, tilted, rising from the brown paper with only white chalk.
The eyes, heavy and almost closed, the mouth barely indicated, the ear sketched on the right give the figure this floating presence of the final years.
The modeling is built with parallel hatching, tight on the forehead, cheek and neck, looser in the hair.
Around it, the charcoal remains open: strands, shoulder contour, a long stroke that joins the signature. Nothing is closed. The head seems half-out of the support, like an apparition that the paper still restrains.
The warm brown of the background, the white of the chalk and the black of the scarce accents — pupils, signature, a few contours — are enough. No added color, no decoration.
We are in the last manner of Detheux: the graphic surrealism of the 1950s has been reduced to a face, and this face no longer poses. It bursts forth.
Signed, dated, of good format and from a period when the spectral portrait becomes the sole subject: a characteristic sheet from the late years, for lovers of Belgian drawing sensitive to buried figures and apparitions.
Artist’s biography:
Born in Brussels in 1932 and deceased in Tournai in 2010, Robert Detheux is a singular figure in Belgian art of the 20th century. A graduate of the Saint-Luc Institute of Fine Arts in Brussels, he taught graphic expression at the Academy of Tournai until 1996, while pursuing a personal, highly coherent body of work.
From the 1950s, he established himself with a very personal surrealist and graphic language. He received the Prize for Young Belgian Painting in 1953, 1954 and 1971.
The following decades deepen the same territory. 1970s: body and female face, hybrid figures, textures. 1980s-1990s: grotesque, eroticism, dark humor. 2000-2010: spectral portraits, apparitions, creatures. This sheet belongs to that last period.
Little exhibited during his lifetime, Detheux worked freely. The discovery of his studio archive (nearly 1,500 works) made this coherence visible.
His drawing, demanding and immediately recognizable, now attracts collectors of Belgian Surrealism, in Belgium, Spain and across Europe.
Seller's Story
About SR Fine Art
With nearly 28 years of experience in the art market, I am passionate about rediscovering artists’ studios and bringing their works to a wide audience on Catawiki.
I specialize in Belgian and European modern and contemporary art. My flagship collection is the studio archive of Robert Detheux (nearly 1,500 works on paper). I also offer surrealist drawings, beautiful abstract paintings from the 1950s, magnificent nude photographs by Michel Pinel, contemporary paintings, Cobra compositions, and works by Marcus de Vestele, Gundi Falk, René Mels, Eugène Eechaut and many others.
From intimate drawings to large formats, there is something for every taste and every budget. The vast majority of my auctions start at 1 € with no reserve price, giving everyone the chance to acquire unique pieces.
Every shipment is prepared with the utmost care using professional museum-quality packaging to ensure perfect condition upon arrival.
Join my growing community of satisfied clients and follow my new auctions to discover rare works from these exceptional studios.
Thank you for your trust and happy bidding!
SR Fine Art
Translated by Google TranslateDetails
Sold by
Owner or reseller
Edition
Original
Artist
Robert Detheux (1932-2010)
Title of artwork
Portrait spectral – 2008
Technique
Mixed media
Signature
Signed
Country of origin
Belgium
Year
2008
Condition
Good condition
Height
50 cm
Width
45 cm
Style
Surrealism
Period
2000-2010
Sold by
