René Magritte

Paul Eluard, Paris
Dominique Eluard, France (femme du précédent)
Galerie 'La Cour d'Ingres', Paris (acquis du précédent vers 1955. Vente : Sotheby's, Londres, 23 Juin 2003, lot 30)
Acquis lors de cette vente par le propriétaire actuel

Paris, Galerie 'La Cour d'Ingres', Surréalisme, 1957
Milan, Palazzo Reale, I Surrealisti, 1989, reproduit (et daté 1935) au sein du catalogue

David Sylvester (ed.) & Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte. Catalogue Raisonné, Oil Paintings and Objects 1931-1948, Londres, 1993, vol. II, appendix no. 80, listé p. 452

The canvas is unlined. There are a few very small spots of retouching in the lower left, and a few tiny spots of retouching on the head of the left-hand figure, visible under ultra-violet light. A few small scattered cracks, likely as a result of the thick canvas weave, visible left of two figures and near right center edge. There are areas of paint on the left and right vertical framing edges within about one inch of the edges which fluoresce under ultra-violet light. These may be caused by the artist's original pigments as they are very old and under the varnish layer, or may represent early retouchings. This work is in good stable condition.
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signed 'Magritte' (lower right) ; titled and dated '1945' (on the reverse), oil on canvas. Painted in 1945.  

Fig. 1, René Magritte, Le Colloque sentimental II, 1947, huile sur toile, Kawamura Memorial Museum of Art, Sakura

 

Peint en 1945, Le Colloque Sentimental est une des premières compositions de Magritte au sein de laquelle la figure du bilboquet anthropomorphique apparaît. Image qui hante plusieurs années durant l'univers "magrittien", le bilboquet est présent dans diverses toiles de l'artiste sous des appellations variées. Leitmotiv de son art dès ses débuts en peinture, le bilboquet acquiert dans les œuvres de cette série une apparence humaine, représenté alternativement seul ou accompagné.

Tableau au charme énigmatique, Le Colloque Sentimental  fascina Paul Eluard qui en fit l'acquisition. Les deux personnages, ici vêtus de capes, se détachent sur un fond désertique empreint de désolation au sein duquel l'eau et le ciel orageux ne font plus qu'un. Ces personnages silencieux, peints sur un paysage intemporel non identifiable, dégagent un certain mystère et semblent couver un drame tacite, signe qui trouve probablement son origine dans les peintures métaphysiques de Chirico (S. Gablik, Magritte, Londres, 1970, p. 27). Atones, inexpressifs, ces protagonistes, mi-humains, mi-créés par l'homme, semblent néanmoins animés d'une certaine complicité, caractéristique habituellement absente des représentations humaines de l'artiste. Virtuellement identiques tant dans leur physionomie que dans leur tenue vestimentaire, ces personnages ne sont pourtant ni masculins, ni féminins. Si leurs visages semblent dénués d'expressions et dans l'incapacité de communiquer, ces êtres n'en paraissent pas moins intimes ; comme en témoigne Magritte qui évoque, dans un écrit sur une œuvre éponyme réalisée quelques année plus tard, "deux objets en bois qui ont perdu leur sens banal, parl[a]nt d'amour et de bonheur" (cité dans D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., p.379). Cette tendre communication entre  les personnages transparaît d'ailleurs dans le titre de l'œuvre, lequel, selon Marcel Mariën, a été trouvé (comme c'est souvent le cas) par Paul Nougé, un poète belge et ami de Magritte, sans doute inspiré du poème éponyme de Paul Verlaine.

 

Painted in 1945, Le Colloque sentimental is one of the first compositions by Magritte in which anthropomorphic bilboquets appear.  An image that was to haunt Magritte's world for several years, the bilboquet appears in several paintings under various titles.  A leitmotif of Magritte's art since the earliest days of his career, in this series of works the bilboquet acquires a man-like quality, appearing either as single figures or as a couple, as in Le Colloque sentimental.

This mysterious appeal of this painting fascinated Paul Eluard, who was the first to acquire the work.  The two protagonists, wrapped in cloaks, stand out against a desolate background, in which a stormy grey sky merges with the water.  These silent figures depicted in an unidentified, timeless landscape, convey a sense of mystery and unspoken drama that probably have their origin in De Chirico's metaphysical paintings, (S. Gablik, Magritte, Londres, 1970, p. 27).  Mute and expressionless, these protagonists, half human and half man-made, nevertheless exude a sense of interaction and companionship that is usually absent from the artist's depictions of human beings. Virtually identical in their appearance and dress, the figures are neither male nor female. Although they appear to be mute and expressionless, they seem closely related to each other; as Magritte himself commented when writing about a later painting of the same title: "two wooden objects which have lost their banal meaning, are speaking of love and happiness" (quoted in D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., p. 379). This tender communication between the figures is reflected in the title of the present work, which, according to Marcel Mariën, was, as was often the case, found by Paul Nougé, a Belgian poet and friend of Magritte's, and is no doubt taken from the eponymous poem by Paul Verlaine.