The Vigil 1940

Paul Delvaux made this unsettling oil on canvas, The Vigil, and it feels like being inside a dream. Delvaux was probably thinking about classical motifs, maybe even ancient goddesses. There's a woman standing in a sparse interior space, a laurel wreath resting on her head. She holds what looks like a golden cloth. The painting has an eerie, almost theatrical quality. It’s a bit like the stage has been set, but where’s the drama? The paint looks thin, with layer upon layer of transparent glazes, creating a smooth, luminous surface. This piece reminds me a little of de Chirico’s surrealist landscapes with their strange sense of alienation and stillness. Artists, you know, we're always in dialogue with one another, borrowing, responding, and transforming ideas. But this painting… well, it’s really its own thing. It invites you to pause and question the nature of seeing. Ultimately, painting, it's a way of experiencing and expressing the world, a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity and the multiple possibilities of meaning.