René Magritte

Pierre Scheidweiler, Brussels (acquired from the artist on 8th April 1965)
Sale: Palais Galliéra, Paris, 10th June 1972, lot 87
Sale: Galerie Motte, Geneva, 6th-8th June 1975
Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels (acquired by 1979)
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1979

Antwerp, Koniklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, De Generatie van 1900: surrealisten-animisten, 1966, (possibly) no. 199
Brussels, Salle des Métiers d'Art du Brabant; Saint-Hubert, Palais Abbatial & Spa, Pouhon Pierre-le-Grand, Peintres et sculpteurs du Hainaut, 1966
Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, René Magritte. Het mysterie van de werkelijkheid (Le mystère de la réalité), 1967, no. 101, illustrated in the catalogue
Stockholm, Moderna Museet, René Magritte, 1967, no. 80 (with incorrect measurements)
Paris, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte, 1979, no. 26, illustrated in colour in the catalogue
Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte, 1979, no. 26
Knokke, Casino, Magritte, 2001, no. 56, illustrated in colour in the catalogue

David Sylvester (ed.), Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte. Catalogue Raisonné. Gouaches, Temperas, Watercolours and Papiers Collés 1918-1967, London, 1994, vol. IV, no. 1580, illustrated p. 282

La Leçon de musique combines several recurrent preoccupations of Magritte's art, such as the bell, the depiction of isolated body parts, objects suspended in the sky and the juxtaposition of human flesh with everyday objects. The bell motif appears in Magritte's early compositions of the 1920s, although in a purer, more geometrically abstract form, usually looming above or scattered around a landscape. In the present work, however, its depiction as if growing from an ear suggests a part of human anatomy rather than an isolated object. As the artist himself commented: 'I'd prefer to believe that the iron bells hanging from our fine horses' necks grew there like poisonous plants on the edge of precipices' (quoted in 'La Ligne de vie', in Combat, vol. 3, no. 105, 10^th December 1938). This metamorphosis of everyday objects into human body parts took different shapes throughout Magritte's oeuvre, most famously in paintings like La Représentation of 1937, where a pair of boots turns into feet.

 

The fragmentation of the human body is an important theme that expresses the essence of Surrealism. It contains two sensations central to Surrealist art: that of desire and fetishism, as in the works of, amongst others, Dalí and Miró, and that of threat and violence, such as in the sculptures of Alberto Giacometti. In the present work, a sense of mystery and ambiguity is created by placing the oversized main elements against a quiet and discreet landscape in the background. Furthermore, the title of the work raises the idea of sound or noise, evoked by the ear and the bell, to the level of music, thus enriching the recognisably surrealist elements with Magritte's own unique poetic vision.

 

Discussing La Leçon de musique, David Sylvester wrote: 'The image was first done in January 1963 and titled 'La Sonnette d'Achille', according to Magritte's description and drawing [...] of a 'nouveau tableau' in a letter to Suzi Gablik of 28 January 1963' (D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., p. 282). Whilst Magritte often produced numerous versions and re-workings of most of his subjects, this image is unique in his oeuvre as, the oil and related sketches aside, he never repeated it in another work.