Imbued with a quiet lyricism, Daël’s deeply mysterious paintings invite us into an intriguing world. Drawn particularly to the historic interiors of Italy, many of her paintings depict baroque palaces of Sicily, the Veneto, and Turin. In them we detect the warmth of midday sun filtering through shutters, across marble and glass, and the cool refuge that these rooms provide. Others originate from her native France, from medieval castles to the ornate Opéra Garnier; all are populated by female figures seemingly lost in reverie.
While their surroundings are identifiable, these figures are imbued with a rich ambiguity. With their simple, timeless dress, it is difficult to pinpoint the era and space that they inhabit. Often they emerge across the surface of a mirror, in a reflection that is optically incorrect, and which invites us to look again, more closely, and to imagine our own tales of lost time
