Robert Detheux (1932-2010) - Le Chat des songes - 2005

The Dream Cat
Dimensions: 51 cm x 39 cm
Condition: Good
Signature and date: Signed and dated 2005
Framing: Sold unframed
Shipment: Will be sent flat, very well protected.

Robert Detheux – Series The Cats (2005)

Created in 2005, this paper artwork titled The Dream Cat belongs to the series The Cats by Robert Detheux, a major figure of Belgian surrealism. Through the delicacy of its line and the depth of its gaze, it embodies the poetic and introspective dimension of Detheux's art, where the cat becomes an expression of a sensitivity that is both fragile and mysterious.

Description of the work

In Le Chat des songes, Detheux sketches a cat with an immense gaze, turned upward, as if absorbed by an invisible light. The drawing, executed in pencil and highlighted with white chalk, unfolds on a light, almost diaphanous background that emphasizes the purity of the composition.

The barely sketched outlines of the body and head give the figure an impression of unreality, as if it were floating between two worlds. The melancholic expression of the cat, blending gentleness and worry, reflects a contained emotion, characteristic of the artist's inner universe.

The transparency of the line and the lightness of the support create an atmosphere of daydream, where silence becomes tangible.

Artistic context

Through the series Les Chats, Robert Detheux explores the symbolism of the cat as a being passing between waking and dreaming. The animal, often associated with mystery and femininity, becomes here the messenger of an inner world, that of silence and contemplation.
This work is fully aligned with the tradition of Belgian poetic surrealism, where suggestion takes precedence over representation. It also evokes the universe of Leonor Fini, whose feline and androgynous figures share the same ambiguity between tenderness and strangeness.

Comparison and influences

Through the finesse of the drawing and expressive restraint, Le Chat des songes recalls the poetic rigor of Balthus. Like him, Detheux favors the unspoken, the slow gaze, and the depth of silence. Both translate emotion not through gesture but through the suspension of time.

Biography
Born in Brussels in 1932, Robert Detheux is a prominent figure of Belgian surrealism. His work, imbued with lyricism and discretion, explores the realms of the unconscious and the beauty of silence. An artist of chiaroscuro and mystery, he managed to create a universe of rare coherence, where each stroke becomes a breath and each gaze a revelation. He passed away in 2010, leaving behind a deeply poetic and timeless body of work.

Provenance
The artist's family collection

A unique and original work by Robert Detheux, The Dream Cat asserts itself as a visual meditation on fragility, light, and reverie. Through its delicacy, symbolic depth, and aesthetic kinship with Leonor Fini, this piece will appeal to collectors sensitive to the poetry of silence and the beauty of the inner world.