René Magritte

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Description

René Magritte
LA PAIX DU SOIR
signed Magritte (upper right); titled and dated 1945 on the reverse
gouache and coloured crayons on paper
42 by 30cm.
16 1/2 by 11 3/4in.

Provenance

Margaret Krebs, Brussels
Private Collection, Brussels
Thence by descent to the present owner

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie d'Orsay, Les Peintres Surréalistes. Delvaux, Ensor, Labisse, Magritte..., 1999, no. 7, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

Catalogue Note

Although the title of the present work alludes to the symbolic meaning of the dove, which would have been appropriate for 1945, the year it was executed, Magritte’s dove is usually represented in the context of the subconscious, rather than of the symbolism of peace. Magritte realised his first painting of the leaf-bird in 1942, in L’Ile au trésor (fig. 1), and subsequently this motif was developed in several oils and gouaches. The leaf-birds are often presented as a family, in a closely-knit group. The present composition, however, depicts a single bird dominating the plain, metaphysical landscape, which is only interrupted by a large bell, one of the artist’s signature-objects.

"Magritte is not a painter of night dreams. His visions, including La Paix du soir, are lucid dreams which explore the depths of the invisible and lead us to the world of hidden things. They’re trying to disorientate, awake the viewer and confront him with his most disturbing secrets, inviting him to discover an underground world full of mystery’ (Les Peintres Surréalistes. Delvaux, Ensor, Labisse, Magritte... (exhibition catalogue), Galerie d'Orsay, Paris, 1999, p. 32).

Fig. 1, René Magritte, L'Ile au trésor, 1942, oil on canvas, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels