Jean Delville - Character and Last Years

Character and Last Years

In his biography, Delville’s son Olivier tells us that his father, determined to pass his ideals on to the world, was continually painting and writing. He supplemented this unreliable income by teaching art, but his busy professional life did not prevent him from applying his strongly held beliefs to his personal life. Olivier describes his father as a person of courage, perseverance, probity and intellect, as well as an upright family man who was strict with his six children.

Despite all his work and ability, however, Delville never achieved the recognition he would have liked. As Brendan Cole says in his thesis, he almost certainly paid a price for refusing to compromise his ideals. By 1951, Delville had become almost completely ignored and forgotten. He died two years later and did not live to see the revival of interest in his work. This was marked by exhibitions in London in 1968, and Paris in 1972. Today Delville’s pictures (especially the early ones, up to the First World War) are once again recognised for their unusual qualities. Many people now see them as outstanding and fascinating expressions of otherworldly subjects. In this context, they are often included in exhibitions and anthologies of the Symbolist movement, and books on fantastic and esoteric art. Delville’s works are also remembered at the Theosophical Society headquarters in Madras, where the Hall of Religions was decorated during the 1960s in a style which, according to Philippe Jullian, imitates that of Delville (The Symbolists, 1973).