L’Appel de la Nuit (The Call of the Night) by Paul Delvaux, 1938.

This is an early and important work in Delvaux’s dream-landscape style. There is a deliberate conflict between the eroticism of the nudes and the uninviting setting into which they have been cast. Sexual fantasy collides with sexual anxiety in the strange and desolate landscape. The symbolism calls for interpretation but resists any. A skull and skeleton can be seen in the background, as well as groups of rocks which appear to be arranged in a prehistoric or symbolic manner. The rampant vegetation clinging to the languid nudes threatens to engulf them.

Image and analysis courtesy of the National Galleries of Scotland.