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TTRPGs as fine art: "Le Portrait du Louvre"

Posted by Michael O'Brien on 24th Mar 2023

NOTE: Spoiler for Horror on the Orient Express / Reign of Terror

"Le portrait du Louvre"

Delphes Desvoivres, creator of the licensed Kickstarter art projects The Sedefkar Simulacrum and The Props of Nyarlathotep, is selling the original and prints of "Le portrait du Louvre". This is her masterly depiction of Le Comte de Fenalique, from our famous Call of Cthulhu campaign Horror on the Orient Express and associated volume Reign of Terror.

Delphes's work is an oil painting on canvas, that was six years in the making. In addition to the original, 25 art prints are available that are hand-signed by Delphes with a certificate of authenticity. The size of the painting and prints is 57x68.5 cm.

For further details check out Delphe's Patreon page, and The Props of Nyarlathotep Facebook page.


Horror on the Orient Express

Christian Lehmann writes:

"In 1990, Richard Watts and I fathered the ultimate monster in Chaosium’s Horror on the Orient Express campaign, Le Comte de Fenalique, as he was known to some unfortunates in Paris just before the French Revolution.

Le Comte, aka Fenalik, has an ancient history, steeped in darkness. He has had many guises, and we described him in some of them. At the basest stage of his devolution. At the height of his powers. Le Comte is as powerful as he is malevolent, as unknowable as he is corrupt. The French Royal Court is a perfect place for him to hide in plain sight. Magnificent candlelit ballrooms, delightful golden curtains hiding piss-stains and worse. He is Corruption walking among the living. He is at an unending Feast of his own design.

Delphes’s portrait captures him perfectly: evil, devoid of any empathy, cruel, and immensely powerful. Our beautiful, beautiful son.

'You still don’t understand what you’re dealing with, do you?' asks Ash in Ridley Scott’s ALIEN, 'A perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility.' This is what I see when I look upon the Portrait du Louvre."