René Magritte

Galerie Lou Cosyn, Brussels

Private Collection, Belgium (acquired from the above in 1959)

Acquired in the early 1960s and thence by descent

David Sylvester & Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, London, 1993, no. 510, illustrated p. 302

Original canvas. The surface is fresh and stable. Under ultra-violet light, there are minor, pinpointed areas of retouching to address surface abrasion in the sky, including a hairline retouching extending (about 5 cm) from the top-right horizontal framing edge and a small cluster of spots along the top left edge. There are also small, isolated area of retouching along the bottom, horizontal edge to address frame abrasion. Otherwise, this work is in good condition. Colors: The colors in the catalogue are fairly accurate.
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Magritte's enchanting L'Empire de la réflexion transposes two familiar elements – the globe and an evening landscape – to create a wholly uncanny image.  The view of the earth rising at dusk over a barren plain calls to mind Ansel Adams' 1941 photograph, Moonrise, an image that captures the quiet beauty of the natural world (fig. 1).  The captivating scene of L'Empire de la réflexion conveys that same sense of tranquility, albeit using a rather unsettling concept.    Painted in the midst of the Second World War, Magritte presents us here with the improbable scenario of being removed from our planet, only to see it from an unreachable distance.   Perhaps drawing from the uneasy tenor of the times, the artist questions our perception of the visible world, subverting the meanings that we attach to commonplace occurrences. The sense of mystification is amplified by the subtlety and almost photographic precision with which the earth and the horizon are depicted, triggering conflicting perceptions of the reality and impossibility of the scene we are witnessing. Writing about this sense of tranquility in Magritte's paintings, Roger Shattuck commented: "I know of no painting that conveys so totally the sense of a universe in suspense, a universe in which everything is waiting and nothing moves" (R. Shattuck, 'This is not René Magritte', in Artforum, New York, September 1966, p. 35).

 

According to the catalogue raisonné, the present work is related to an earlier composition from 1938 (Sylvester no. 462), in which the earth is seen rising above the sea.  In the 1960s, the family of the present owner contacted Magritte about L'Empire de la réflexion, asking if he could elaborate on its precise meaning.  Magritte's reply was just as enigmatic as this picture, exemplified by the following excerpt:  "I can answer you by saying that I consider essential that which is given through inspiration: for example, the thought of a nocturnal landscape under a starlit sky.  I have very little imagination, my painting owes nothing to imagination.  Imagination only concerns the imaginary, which is to say the arbitrary, more or less paradoxical.  I think unhesitatingly, that in order to paint in the way that I conceive painting, inspiration is necessary.  In order to talk about what I paint, inspiration is also necessary, if one wishes really to talk about it."