Better Days Are Coming

DELPHINE DESANE (B. 1988)  

Better Days Are Coming  

signed, titled and dated '"Better days are coming" 2021 Delphine Desane DD N.Y.' (on the reverse)  

acrylic and oil on linen  

60 x 45 inches (152.4 x 114.3 cm)  

Executed in 2021.

PROVENANCE:  

Private collection, New York

NOTES:  

Born in 1988 in France to Haitian parents, Delphine Desane is a contemporary painter whose intimate figurative works explore themes of Black womanhood, migration, family, and emotional memory. After an early career in fashion, Desane turned fully to painting and quickly developed a distinctive visual language rooted in autobiography and psychological depth. Now based in New York, she is known for compositions that center Black subjects within quiet, contemplative spaces, using color, gesture, and simplified form to evoke tenderness, resilience, and interiority. Her paintings often blur the line between portraiture and memory, constructing emotionally charged scenes that feel both deeply personal and universally resonant.

Executed in 2021, Better Days Are Coming exemplifies Desane’s ability to transform portraiture into a space of emotional reassurance and psychological reflection. Rendered in acrylic and oil on linen, the composition centers the figure within an atmosphere that feels at once intimate and quietly monumental. The title itself carries the cadence of affirmation and resilience, framing the work as both personal declaration and collective meditation on endurance, hope, and emotional survival. Desane approaches the figure with characteristic tenderness, allowing posture, gesture, and chromatic subtlety to communicate emotional depth rather than overt narrative.

The painting’s restrained composition and carefully modulated palette create a sense of stillness that is central to Desane’s practice. Her figures frequently inhabit spaces suspended between memory and imagination, where emotional presence takes precedence over physical specificity. In Better Days Are Coming, layered passages of color and softened contours lend the surface a dreamlike quality, while the directness of the figure’s presence anchors the work in lived experience. Through this balance of vulnerability and strength, Desane creates a portrait that feels deeply personal yet universally resonant, offering an image of Black interiority shaped by care, contemplation, and quiet optimism.

Desane’s work has been exhibited internationally in solo and group presentations in New York, London, Turin, and Hong Kong. Her paintings have been featured in exhibitions with Pace Gallery and Ben Brown Fine Arts, and she gained widespread recognition following her inclusion in Vogue Italia’s landmark illustrated issue in 2020. Her work is held in several prominent private and institutional collections, reflecting the growing international attention surrounding her practice and its contribution to contemporary figurative painting.