Robert Detheux (1932-2010) - Métamorphose silencieuse - 2005

Artist: Robert Detheux (1932-2010)

Silent metamorphosis
2005
Dimensions: 47.5 cm x 36.5 cm
Condition: Good
Signed and dated: Signed and dated 2005

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

Robert Detheux – Series of Imaginary Figures (2005)
This paper artwork, titled Silent Metamorphosis, belongs to a pivotal period in Robert Detheux's work, during which the artist explores the transformation of the body and the boundary between human and animal. Created in 2005, it reflects his interest in hybrid forms, oscillating between sensuality and strangeness, within a deeply introspective surrealist vein.

Description of the work

In Silent Metamorphosis, Detheux depicts a female figure with uncertain contours, her limbs extending into organic protrusions reminiscent of legs or roots. The body, shaped by a subtle play of shadows and hatching, appears to float in an indeterminate space, bathed in a sepia hue that lends the scene a melancholic softness.
The face, both human and spectral, expresses a form of suspended vulnerability. The material, worked with pencil and sanguine, reveals Detheux's mastery of drawing and tactile sensitivity. The overall impression is one of poetic strangeness, where flesh becomes a metaphor for passage, mutation, and dream.

Artistic context

This work continues the tradition of Belgian surrealism, where the body is often the site of metamorphosis and mystery. Detheux, a spiritual heir of Paul Delvaux and René Magritte, here seeks to explore the liminal zones of identity and desire.
The female figure, fragmented and recomposed, also evokes the works of Hans Bellmer, whose deformed dolls express a tension between eroticism and anxiety. However, in Detheux, the transformation is not violent: it unfolds in a slow, meditative manner, imbued with a silent grace.

Biography

Born in Brussels in 1932, Robert Detheux established himself as a singular figure in Belgian surrealism. His work, marked by the pursuit of pure gesture and inner light, explores the shadows of the human psyche. Between poetic abstraction and symbolic figuration, Detheux managed to create a visual language of great delicacy. He passed away in 2010, leaving behind a rare body of work, imbued with mystery and introspection.

Provenance
Family collection of the artist.

Unique and original work by Robert Detheux

Silent metamorphosis embodies the quintessence of its art: an exploration of the body as a territory of dream and passage. Through its subtle graphic style and aesthetic kinship with Bellmer and Delvaux, this piece will appeal to collectors sensitive to surrealist art and the beauty of inner gesture.