Delvaux died in 1994, but Belgian commemorative policy in the 2000s made a concerted effort to pair royal portraiture with the country's most internationally recognized fine artists — a deliberate soft-power exercise that produced a run of silver issues pairing Albert II with figures like Magritte and Hergé alongside Delvaux. The painter spent much of his life in the Belgian Ardennes and was closely associated with the Surrealist movement, though he consistently rejected the label.
Delvaux died in 1994, but Belgian commemorative policy in the 2000s made a concerted effort to pair royal portraiture with the country's most internationally recognized fine artists — a deliberate soft-power exercise that produced a run of silver issues pairing Albert II with figures like Magritte and Hergé alongside Delvaux. The painter spent much of his life in the Belgian Ardennes and was closely associated with the Surrealist movement, though he consistently rejected the label.