Early Magritte
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Magritte
Chronology : 1926 1933 1936 1937 1945
See also : Magritte
Chronology : 1926 1933 1936 1937 1945
first solo exhibition
Intro
In 1921 the young René Magritte is hired as a draftsman in a wallpaper factory in Brussels. He frequents Surrealist and Dadaist literary circles and would like to become independent as an advertising illustrator.
Attentive to avant-garde art, Magritte is subjugated in 1923 by an image of the Canto d'amore, a surrealist work painted in 1914 by De Chirico. Ordinary objects constitute a poetic universe if their positioning is absurd. He transposes in an ordinary surrounding the irrational and antique-inspired scenes by De Chirico.
In 1926 in Brussels the Galerie Le Centaure invites René Magritte to prepare paintings for his first solo exhibition to be held in April and May of the next year. The young artist builds his own surreal world where the main characters are bilboquets.
In this set of 49 paintings and 12 papiers collés, Magritte questions the nature of the human being, often limited to several cut organs. He simplifies his drawing so that the objects are immediately recognizable, making their interactions even more bizarre.
Visitors are not interested in his intentionally illogical vision of the world. In August 1927 Magritte joined the surrealist group in Paris where the audience was also reluctant. Returning to Brussels in 1930 he exploited through four decades his original idea of the incongruous relations between disparate objects.
Attentive to avant-garde art, Magritte is subjugated in 1923 by an image of the Canto d'amore, a surrealist work painted in 1914 by De Chirico. Ordinary objects constitute a poetic universe if their positioning is absurd. He transposes in an ordinary surrounding the irrational and antique-inspired scenes by De Chirico.
In 1926 in Brussels the Galerie Le Centaure invites René Magritte to prepare paintings for his first solo exhibition to be held in April and May of the next year. The young artist builds his own surreal world where the main characters are bilboquets.
In this set of 49 paintings and 12 papiers collés, Magritte questions the nature of the human being, often limited to several cut organs. He simplifies his drawing so that the objects are immediately recognizable, making their interactions even more bizarre.
Visitors are not interested in his intentionally illogical vision of the world. In August 1927 Magritte joined the surrealist group in Paris where the audience was also reluctant. Returning to Brussels in 1930 he exploited through four decades his original idea of the incongruous relations between disparate objects.
1
1926 Le Groupe Silencieux
2018 SOLD for £ 7.2M by Christie's
Le Groupe silencieux, oil on canvas 120 x 80 cm painted in 1926, was the no. 9 at Le Centaure in 1927.
The walls of the room are pink, the color of the female nude which also excites Magritte at that time. An almost complete humanoid silhouette is a thick cropped board. Three eyes are folded on the edges of a flesh-colored cube in an iconography that anticipates Dali's soft watches.
Art did not escape this grotesque setting with the image of a castle that dissolves in the curtain and a large landscape painting carelessly leaning against the wall on the left.
It was sold for £ 7.2M by Christie's on February 27, 2018, lot 107.
The walls of the room are pink, the color of the female nude which also excites Magritte at that time. An almost complete humanoid silhouette is a thick cropped board. Three eyes are folded on the edges of a flesh-colored cube in an iconography that anticipates Dali's soft watches.
Art did not escape this grotesque setting with the image of a castle that dissolves in the curtain and a large landscape painting carelessly leaning against the wall on the left.
It was sold for £ 7.2M by Christie's on February 27, 2018, lot 107.
2
1926-1927 La Lumière du Pôle
2022 SOLD for £ 6M by Christie's
René Magritte based his whole career on the observation that the image of an object is not the real object. The consequence is that a landscape may be populated by surrealist elements and that the apparent textures and shapes must disturb the expectation of the viewer. Stylized mountain ranges are used for the backdrop of surrealist sceneries.
Painted in 1926-1927, La Lumière du Pôle is a complex composition with three elements spanning the whole foreground. A pair of bald women in the nude may be wax mannequins. Their integrity is conjured by the sheared edges featuring them as mere paper shells with empty interiors. The third element, a standing dove that looks like the fur wrap of a vase, is a wink to a company that were commissioning the catalogues of their fur collection to the artist. The threatening sky is in the style of De Chirico.
Once in the collection of Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, this large size oil on canvas 139 x 105 cm was sold by Christie's for £ 6M on March 1, 2022, lot 102 and for £ 4.9M on March 5, 2025, lot 114.
It had been the no. 47 in the 1927 solo exhibition at Le Centaure after being illustrated in March 1927 as Le Sommet du Pôle in a Brussels magazine.
The no. 12 at Le Centaure was Le Toit du Monde, oil on canvas 65 x 75 cm. A violin stick is raised in the middle of the table. The stage is curled to imitate the folds of the mountain and its surface is holed like a cheese of Gruyere. It was sold for € 2.7M by Sotheby's on October 19, 2017, lot 8.
The no. 13 was Les Signes du soir, oil on canvas 75 x 65 cm executed in 1926. The large frame is a trompe-l'oeil, leaving to the viewer to choose whether the tree is in the painting or elsewhere. It was sold for £ 1.8M by Christie's on February 27, 2018, lot 118.
The no. 33 was L'Esprit du voyageur, 65 x 75 cm. A tall bowling pin positioned inside a group of three porticoes admires the immensity of nature. The foreground of the mountain appears in space like a flat cardboard. It was sold for £ 460K by Christie's on February 9, 2011, lot 118.
Painted in 1926-1927, La Lumière du Pôle is a complex composition with three elements spanning the whole foreground. A pair of bald women in the nude may be wax mannequins. Their integrity is conjured by the sheared edges featuring them as mere paper shells with empty interiors. The third element, a standing dove that looks like the fur wrap of a vase, is a wink to a company that were commissioning the catalogues of their fur collection to the artist. The threatening sky is in the style of De Chirico.
Once in the collection of Sophia Loren and Carlo Ponti, this large size oil on canvas 139 x 105 cm was sold by Christie's for £ 6M on March 1, 2022, lot 102 and for £ 4.9M on March 5, 2025, lot 114.
It had been the no. 47 in the 1927 solo exhibition at Le Centaure after being illustrated in March 1927 as Le Sommet du Pôle in a Brussels magazine.
The no. 12 at Le Centaure was Le Toit du Monde, oil on canvas 65 x 75 cm. A violin stick is raised in the middle of the table. The stage is curled to imitate the folds of the mountain and its surface is holed like a cheese of Gruyere. It was sold for € 2.7M by Sotheby's on October 19, 2017, lot 8.
The no. 13 was Les Signes du soir, oil on canvas 75 x 65 cm executed in 1926. The large frame is a trompe-l'oeil, leaving to the viewer to choose whether the tree is in the painting or elsewhere. It was sold for £ 1.8M by Christie's on February 27, 2018, lot 118.
The no. 33 was L'Esprit du voyageur, 65 x 75 cm. A tall bowling pin positioned inside a group of three porticoes admires the immensity of nature. The foreground of the mountain appears in space like a flat cardboard. It was sold for £ 460K by Christie's on February 9, 2011, lot 118.
1928 Les Jours Gigantesques
2012 SOLD for £ 7.2M by Christie's
A fan of the Fantômas movie series, René Magritte manages to express the sexual violence, a trending theme in the Parisian Surrealist group.
The rape stages a clothed man holding high a nude woman. She is in terror with an extended arm which mimics the Ratto delle Sabine by Giambologna.
Magritte adds his own special wit. The man is in front of his victim but is trimmed in his head and back so that he does not overlap her outline. In a close view the woman is indeed threatened by a part of herself, somehow composed like a movie poster. Her struggle is psychological. The artist originally proposed the title La Peur de l'Amour, describing a balance between violence and union.
The 30 year old artist appealed his Surrealist poet friends to coin a better title. He was ready to accept L'Aube désarmé suggested by Nougé before converging with Scutenaire for a megalomaniac Les Jours Gigantesques.
This oil on canvas 72 x 54 cm painted in 1928 was sold for £ 7.2M from a lower estimate of £ 800K by Christie's on June 20, 2012, lot 56.
The rape stages a clothed man holding high a nude woman. She is in terror with an extended arm which mimics the Ratto delle Sabine by Giambologna.
Magritte adds his own special wit. The man is in front of his victim but is trimmed in his head and back so that he does not overlap her outline. In a close view the woman is indeed threatened by a part of herself, somehow composed like a movie poster. Her struggle is psychological. The artist originally proposed the title La Peur de l'Amour, describing a balance between violence and union.
The 30 year old artist appealed his Surrealist poet friends to coin a better title. He was ready to accept L'Aube désarmé suggested by Nougé before converging with Scutenaire for a megalomaniac Les Jours Gigantesques.
This oil on canvas 72 x 54 cm painted in 1928 was sold for £ 7.2M from a lower estimate of £ 800K by Christie's on June 20, 2012, lot 56.
1928 Les Chasseurs au Bord de la Nuit
2024 SOLD for $ 9.6M by Christie's
In 1928, René Magritte is in Paris. Same as Dali and Ernst, he expresses his vision of life by creating parallel universes. He is passionate about Poe but he is also still shocked by the suicide of his mother in the Sambre river 16 years earlier when he was 14.
Les chasseurs au bord de la nuit (Hunters at the edge of night), oil on canvas 81 x 116 cm, was sold by Christie's for £ 6.6M on February 4, 2014, lot 114 and for $ 9.6M on November 19, 2024, lot 38A. It was the largest format used at that time by Magritte.
Two bulky men with boots and rifles are desperately clinging to a wall. On the right, the space is free to the horizon. Nothing explains why these men do not circumvent the edge of the wall excepted the hostile vacuum of this endless landscape.
It was assumed that the wall came suddenly for separating them from any logical reality, as the Pit and the Pendulum in Poe's short story. A hunter is a killer who does not have to attract sympathy but the attitude of these men is a masterpiece of the surrealist expression of anguish and a beautiful symbol of the impotence of humanity.
The artist plays with day and night. The angle of the shadow is from twilight but the blank light does not come from the sun which just set off at the opposite.
Les chasseurs au bord de la nuit (Hunters at the edge of night), oil on canvas 81 x 116 cm, was sold by Christie's for £ 6.6M on February 4, 2014, lot 114 and for $ 9.6M on November 19, 2024, lot 38A. It was the largest format used at that time by Magritte.
Two bulky men with boots and rifles are desperately clinging to a wall. On the right, the space is free to the horizon. Nothing explains why these men do not circumvent the edge of the wall excepted the hostile vacuum of this endless landscape.
It was assumed that the wall came suddenly for separating them from any logical reality, as the Pit and the Pendulum in Poe's short story. A hunter is a killer who does not have to attract sympathy but the attitude of these men is a masterpiece of the surrealist expression of anguish and a beautiful symbol of the impotence of humanity.
The artist plays with day and night. The angle of the shadow is from twilight but the blank light does not come from the sun which just set off at the opposite.
masterpiece
1929 La Trahison des Images
Los Angeles County Museum
From 1926 Magritte observes that an image of an object remains an image and is not the object. He begins to confront the drawing of his pipe with the word 'pipe' or with an abstraction. In 1929 La trahison des images is an artistic manifesto of a sublime simplicity, in just six words: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe."
In the same period Miro also was appreciating that the new poetic dimension of modern art was a personal work that could not be attached to a movement and even less to a political affiliation.
In the same period Miro also was appreciating that the new poetic dimension of modern art was a personal work that could not be attached to a movement and even less to a political affiliation.
1933 La Reconnaissance Infinie
2025 SOLD for £ 10.3M by Christie's
In 1933 a solo exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels featured more than 50 works by René Magritte, most of them executed in the later 1920s.
Recently introduced in the Surrealist group of Brussels, the young poet Paul Colinet was dazzled. He prepared a sketch which is a synthesis of Magritte's surrealist vision.
A scenery of majestic stylized mountains is bordered by a window whose left side is missing. A gigantic white orb is floating in mid air with a tiny gentleman standing in its top. The shadows of mountain and orb are in contradiction.
The orb may be the ball of a bilboquet, that game introduced in art by Morandi and extensively recuperated by Magritte in his early works. It may also be an oversized crystal ball.
After the closure of the exhibition, Magritte executed a painting from Colinet's composition. This oil on canvas 100 x 70 cm was sold for £ 10.3M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on March 5, 2025, lot 108.
The title, La Reconnaissance infinie, probably coined by Colinet, is based on the double meaning of the word, used both for acknowledging Magritte's pioneering style and for the geographical survey of the man looking straight into some infinity.
Probably by chance, this painting matches the everlasting quest in Chinese art for the position of small men within the huge sceneries of the world.
Recently introduced in the Surrealist group of Brussels, the young poet Paul Colinet was dazzled. He prepared a sketch which is a synthesis of Magritte's surrealist vision.
A scenery of majestic stylized mountains is bordered by a window whose left side is missing. A gigantic white orb is floating in mid air with a tiny gentleman standing in its top. The shadows of mountain and orb are in contradiction.
The orb may be the ball of a bilboquet, that game introduced in art by Morandi and extensively recuperated by Magritte in his early works. It may also be an oversized crystal ball.
After the closure of the exhibition, Magritte executed a painting from Colinet's composition. This oil on canvas 100 x 70 cm was sold for £ 10.3M from a lower estimate of £ 6M by Christie's on March 5, 2025, lot 108.
The title, La Reconnaissance infinie, probably coined by Colinet, is based on the double meaning of the word, used both for acknowledging Magritte's pioneering style and for the geographical survey of the man looking straight into some infinity.
Probably by chance, this painting matches the everlasting quest in Chinese art for the position of small men within the huge sceneries of the world.
1936 La Vengeance
2021 SOLD for € 14.6M by Christie's
In every work René Magritte invites the viewer in a dreamlike world where the juxtaposition of familiar objects becomes paradoxical. His limitless fantasy integrates a reflection about the deep nature of the images, which must be considered by themselves and not as a trial to reconstitute a reality or a truth.
Some artifacts get a major role in his surrealistic demonstration, especially when they mingle together. The world of the artist is a confusion between outside and inside, still enhanced by the role of the door which loses its separation role. The image within the image provides also a major role to the easel.
In 1931 in La Belle Captive, a continuous pastoral landscape incorporates an easel so that the viewer cannot know whether the frame on the easel is empty or includes a picture in the exact continuity of the landscape. In 1933 La Condition Humaine brings a further confusion between the easel and a porch.
On June 30, 2021, Christie's sold for € 14.6M from a lower estimate of € 6M La Vengeance, oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm painted in 1936, lot 108.
The easel is inside an empty room. It supports a landscape painting with a cloudy blue sky. The white clouds escape on the wall around the easel. A single grelot (jingle bell) on the floor is a signature artifact by the artist as a frequently used alternative to his baluster bilboquet.
The ultimate compositions from that trend are painted in 1939. A single white cloud is stuck in a half opened transparent door that stands alone in a seaside landscape, in La Victoire, or in a door embedded within a wall, in Le Poison (not to be confused with another Poison which is a precursor to L'Empire des Lumières).
Some artifacts get a major role in his surrealistic demonstration, especially when they mingle together. The world of the artist is a confusion between outside and inside, still enhanced by the role of the door which loses its separation role. The image within the image provides also a major role to the easel.
In 1931 in La Belle Captive, a continuous pastoral landscape incorporates an easel so that the viewer cannot know whether the frame on the easel is empty or includes a picture in the exact continuity of the landscape. In 1933 La Condition Humaine brings a further confusion between the easel and a porch.
On June 30, 2021, Christie's sold for € 14.6M from a lower estimate of € 6M La Vengeance, oil on canvas 55 x 65 cm painted in 1936, lot 108.
The easel is inside an empty room. It supports a landscape painting with a cloudy blue sky. The white clouds escape on the wall around the easel. A single grelot (jingle bell) on the floor is a signature artifact by the artist as a frequently used alternative to his baluster bilboquet.
The ultimate compositions from that trend are painted in 1939. A single white cloud is stuck in a half opened transparent door that stands alone in a seaside landscape, in La Victoire, or in a door embedded within a wall, in Le Poison (not to be confused with another Poison which is a precursor to L'Empire des Lumières).
1937 Le Principe du Plaisir
2018 SOLD for $ 27M by Sotheby's
Edward James is the son of an American railroad boss and of a supposed natural daughter of King Edward VII. He lives in England. He is a wealthy poet, and his interest in psychoanalysis is transformed into a passion for surrealist art.
In 1937 James is 30 years old. Dali introduces him to Magritte. Their connivance is immediate and perfect. Magritte proposes to make two surrealist portraits of his new patron.
Magritte sends a preparatory drawing to his model. He has chosen the theme of the portrait whose head is entirely replaced by a dazzling light. To make sure of James' enthusiasm, Magritte asks him to take care of the photographic preparation in the pose that matches the drawing. James has the picture taken by Man Ray.
On November 12, 2018, Sotheby's sold for $ 27M from a lower estimate of $ 15M this portrait of James by Magritte, oil on canvas 73 x 55 cm painted in 1937, lot 35. Magritte has friendly chosen a Freudian title, Le Principe du Plaisir. The outline of the head is embedded in a halo that makes the image even more laudative.
The provenance testifies to the lasting success of this portrait. It belonged to James and then to his foundation until 1978 and remained in another collection since 1979.
The second portrait, also painted in 1937, is titled La Reproduction Interdite. It is another development of the theme of the visible and the hidden. James looks at himself in a large mirror in which his reflection is seen from behind.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
In 1937 James is 30 years old. Dali introduces him to Magritte. Their connivance is immediate and perfect. Magritte proposes to make two surrealist portraits of his new patron.
Magritte sends a preparatory drawing to his model. He has chosen the theme of the portrait whose head is entirely replaced by a dazzling light. To make sure of James' enthusiasm, Magritte asks him to take care of the photographic preparation in the pose that matches the drawing. James has the picture taken by Man Ray.
On November 12, 2018, Sotheby's sold for $ 27M from a lower estimate of $ 15M this portrait of James by Magritte, oil on canvas 73 x 55 cm painted in 1937, lot 35. Magritte has friendly chosen a Freudian title, Le Principe du Plaisir. The outline of the head is embedded in a halo that makes the image even more laudative.
The provenance testifies to the lasting success of this portrait. It belonged to James and then to his foundation until 1978 and remained in another collection since 1979.
The second portrait, also painted in 1937, is titled La Reproduction Interdite. It is another development of the theme of the visible and the hidden. James looks at himself in a large mirror in which his reflection is seen from behind.
Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1938 Le Domaine d'Arnheim
2017 SOLD for £ 10.2M by Christie's
The titles of René Magritte's artworks are mostly the result of chance. Le Domaine d'Arnheim is a counter-example.
The composition shows a large snowy mountain seen from a chalet. Everything is normal except that the horizon is centered on an eagle's head in profile, suggesting the intervention of a sculptor for shaping the mountain as in Mount Rushmore. The surprise occasioned by this discovery leads the viewer to perceive the landscape as the extended wings of the bird. In the foreground two beautiful eggs are placed on a low wall.
The artist has thus grouped two dualities which are among the permanent themes of his surreal world : the living and the rock form an impossible pair while egg to bird is somehow a metamorphosis similar as caterpillar to butterfly. From 1932 the artist had placed eggs in bird cages.
The title also has a double meaning. Arnhem in the Netherlands has as its etymological origin 'the home of the eagle' from an Old German word. The Domain of Arnheim is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe in which a man with unlimited wealth remodels the landscape to make it more beautiful than what nature alone can do. This title chosen by Magritte is also an acknowledgment of Poe as a forerunner of Surrealism.
The original version, oil on canvas 73 x 100 cm painted in 1938, was sold for £ 10.2M from a lower estimate of £ 6.5M by Christie's on February 28, 2017, lot 112. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Magritte executed his sublime landscape ten times, always with the same title : three paintings and seven gouaches.
Domaine d'Arnheim, painted in 1949, features the same landscape with significant surrealist additions in a new demonstration of the treachery of images. This oil in canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 19M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 9.
The landscape is now framed in a full arched window between a pair of curtains. The eggs have gone, superseded on two shelves by pieces of shattered glass duplicating the landscape. The largest piece features the eagle's head. The picture itself is cracked like a jigsaw puzzle in the same element shapes as the shattered glass panes.
The composition shows a large snowy mountain seen from a chalet. Everything is normal except that the horizon is centered on an eagle's head in profile, suggesting the intervention of a sculptor for shaping the mountain as in Mount Rushmore. The surprise occasioned by this discovery leads the viewer to perceive the landscape as the extended wings of the bird. In the foreground two beautiful eggs are placed on a low wall.
The artist has thus grouped two dualities which are among the permanent themes of his surreal world : the living and the rock form an impossible pair while egg to bird is somehow a metamorphosis similar as caterpillar to butterfly. From 1932 the artist had placed eggs in bird cages.
The title also has a double meaning. Arnhem in the Netherlands has as its etymological origin 'the home of the eagle' from an Old German word. The Domain of Arnheim is a short story by Edgar Allan Poe in which a man with unlimited wealth remodels the landscape to make it more beautiful than what nature alone can do. This title chosen by Magritte is also an acknowledgment of Poe as a forerunner of Surrealism.
The original version, oil on canvas 73 x 100 cm painted in 1938, was sold for £ 10.2M from a lower estimate of £ 6.5M by Christie's on February 28, 2017, lot 112. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Magritte executed his sublime landscape ten times, always with the same title : three paintings and seven gouaches.
Domaine d'Arnheim, painted in 1949, features the same landscape with significant surrealist additions in a new demonstration of the treachery of images. This oil in canvas 100 x 81 cm was sold for $ 19M by Sotheby's on May 16, 2023, lot 9.
The landscape is now framed in a full arched window between a pair of curtains. The eggs have gone, superseded on two shelves by pieces of shattered glass duplicating the landscape. The largest piece features the eagle's head. The picture itself is cracked like a jigsaw puzzle in the same element shapes as the shattered glass panes.
1938 Le Miroir Universel
2023 SOLD for HK$ 78M by Sotheby's
Under the title La Magie noire, René Magritte displays in 1934 his wife Georgette as a naked woman, like a Venus of Milo who would have retrieved her arms, in frontal view. References to the Medici Venus and to Botticelli's Birth of Venus are also suitable.
The head and torso imitate the cerulean blue of the evening sky behind her, in contradiction with the lower body treated in the color of the flesh in sunlight. A white dove is tenderly resting on a shoulder, beak near cheek.
The title is related to an explanation provided by Magritte to Breton about the mingling of the woman into the sky. The hand resting in a stone refers to the attachment of mankind to the earth. The juxtaposition of night and day is Magritte's symbol of the most delightful poetry.
La Magie noire had a lot of followings. Le Miroir universel begins its exhibition history in 1938 but is dated 1939 possibly after a rework. The image is revealed as a wall paper, half torn before an interior boiserie. This jagged shearing may refer to the estrangement of the artist with his wife at that time. The dove is absent.
This oil on canvas 116 x 89 cm was sold for $ 6.7M by Christie's on November 12, 2015, lot 22C and for HK $ 78M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2023, lot 8510. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Magritte and Georgette reconcile in 1940. A variant 73 x 54 cm painted in 1942 of La Magie noire reusing that title was sold for £ 4.6M by Christie's on March 7, 2024, lot 112. Le Beau navire, 93 x 70 cm painted ca 1946, was sold for £ 3.8M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2010, lot 30. The dove has not reappeared. A hand holds an ephemeral rose.
Another version of La Magie noire, oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm, was sold for £ 4.2M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2019, lot 17. This remake painted in 1946 for his brother Raymond includes the main elements of the previous versions : the two-colored woman with empty eyes, a hand on a rock serving as a guéridon. Peace has come back, same for the dove.
Variants in other staging of the full front nude standing woman with a hand on a rock include L'Aimant, oil on canvas 130 x 90 cm painted in 1941, sold for £ 4.75M by Christie's on February 9, 2011, lot 104, with a heavy red curtain, and L'Ingénue, oil on canvas 80 x 60 cm painted in 1945, sold for € 5.5M by Sotheby's in October 26, 2021, lot 5, within a crowd of stupid zoomorphic bilboquets. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
The head and torso imitate the cerulean blue of the evening sky behind her, in contradiction with the lower body treated in the color of the flesh in sunlight. A white dove is tenderly resting on a shoulder, beak near cheek.
The title is related to an explanation provided by Magritte to Breton about the mingling of the woman into the sky. The hand resting in a stone refers to the attachment of mankind to the earth. The juxtaposition of night and day is Magritte's symbol of the most delightful poetry.
La Magie noire had a lot of followings. Le Miroir universel begins its exhibition history in 1938 but is dated 1939 possibly after a rework. The image is revealed as a wall paper, half torn before an interior boiserie. This jagged shearing may refer to the estrangement of the artist with his wife at that time. The dove is absent.
This oil on canvas 116 x 89 cm was sold for $ 6.7M by Christie's on November 12, 2015, lot 22C and for HK $ 78M by Sotheby's on October 5, 2023, lot 8510. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
Magritte and Georgette reconcile in 1940. A variant 73 x 54 cm painted in 1942 of La Magie noire reusing that title was sold for £ 4.6M by Christie's on March 7, 2024, lot 112. Le Beau navire, 93 x 70 cm painted ca 1946, was sold for £ 3.8M by Sotheby's on February 3, 2010, lot 30. The dove has not reappeared. A hand holds an ephemeral rose.
Another version of La Magie noire, oil on canvas 81 x 60 cm, was sold for £ 4.2M by Sotheby's on June 19, 2019, lot 17. This remake painted in 1946 for his brother Raymond includes the main elements of the previous versions : the two-colored woman with empty eyes, a hand on a rock serving as a guéridon. Peace has come back, same for the dove.
Variants in other staging of the full front nude standing woman with a hand on a rock include L'Aimant, oil on canvas 130 x 90 cm painted in 1941, sold for £ 4.75M by Christie's on February 9, 2011, lot 104, with a heavy red curtain, and L'Ingénue, oil on canvas 80 x 60 cm painted in 1945, sold for € 5.5M by Sotheby's in October 26, 2021, lot 5, within a crowd of stupid zoomorphic bilboquets. Please watch the video prepared by the auction house.
1945 L'Ile au Trésor
2023 SOLD for $ 13.3M by Christie's
Times are hard for everybody in Europe in 1942. Magritte is deeply questioning his own art, soon to enter a new phase of mocking Impressionism and Fauvism. Les compagnons de la peur is a singular painting based of Magritte's classical style of the artist but with a very rare political message supported by its title.
In front of a mountain scenery, a group of five owls occupies a dominant position from where they scan their environment with the severity of Gestapo. The arid mountain and the heavy sky increase the anxiety. In Magritte's usual rendering of the contraries the night birds look well awake in day light.
The power of these birds is an illusion. They are not birds but leaf-bird hybrids planted in their eagle's nest from where they will never take flight. The harm suggested by their uncompromising attitude will not be enforced. Some young leaves are nevertheless ready for their metamorphosis.
The leaf-bird is here the opposite of Miro's free bird. It is following the mineral-human hybrids with which Magritte was already questioning the deep nature of beings.
Les Compagnons de la Peur, oil on canvas 71 x 93 cm, was sold for £ 4.7M by Christie's on June 20, 2018, lot 12 B.
Peace is back. On the edge of the cliff, a bunch of leaf-doves supersedes the terrible sentinels. Two of birds are taking flight to freedom. The new composition is named L'Ile au Trésor from a suggestion by Scutenaire. This oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm was sold for $ 13.3M by Christie's in November 9, 2023, lot 39 B.
In front of a mountain scenery, a group of five owls occupies a dominant position from where they scan their environment with the severity of Gestapo. The arid mountain and the heavy sky increase the anxiety. In Magritte's usual rendering of the contraries the night birds look well awake in day light.
The power of these birds is an illusion. They are not birds but leaf-bird hybrids planted in their eagle's nest from where they will never take flight. The harm suggested by their uncompromising attitude will not be enforced. Some young leaves are nevertheless ready for their metamorphosis.
The leaf-bird is here the opposite of Miro's free bird. It is following the mineral-human hybrids with which Magritte was already questioning the deep nature of beings.
Les Compagnons de la Peur, oil on canvas 71 x 93 cm, was sold for £ 4.7M by Christie's on June 20, 2018, lot 12 B.
Peace is back. On the edge of the cliff, a bunch of leaf-doves supersedes the terrible sentinels. Two of birds are taking flight to freedom. The new composition is named L'Ile au Trésor from a suggestion by Scutenaire. This oil on canvas 60 x 80 cm was sold for $ 13.3M by Christie's in November 9, 2023, lot 39 B.
