René Magritte

Private Collection, France
Sale: Sotheby's, London, 7th February 2006, lot 64
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Executed on cream wove paper, not laid down, hinged to the mount along the top edge. Apart from a small pinhead-sized loss to the upper layer of the paint in the clouds above the right sail, the medium is fresh and the work is overall in very good condition. Colours: Fairly accurate, although there is overall more depth to the colours and the greens are slightly stronger in the original.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Le Séducteur belongs to a group of works sharing the same title and subject matter that Magritte executed during the 1950s and early 1960s. The present work depicts the spectre-like ship, at one with the sea, set against a blue sky and wind-blown clouds. Sarah Whitfield wrote the following on his first work from this series: 'Writing to a friend about the first version of Le Séducteur, an oil of 1950, Magritte told him that it represented the solution to the problem of water. As with his other works, he said, the image had been found through a kind of 'frantic contemplation', which he describes as a process of drawing the same image repeatedly until a chance line or a conjunction of lines dictated the solution. Those particular sketches have not come to light but a few sheets of the sort he describes have survived (they relate to works which date from either the 1950s or 1960s). While Magritte's habit of throwing drawings away makes it unwise to infer too much from the ones that he kept, this kind of obsessive drawing – a form of doodling – indicates a method of tapping the unconscious that brings to mind some of the experiments with automatism practiced by the Paris Surrealists in the 1920s. And, indeed, in the letter cited above, Magritte went on to associate this image with the realisation of a dream' (S. Whitfield, René Magritte (exhibition catalogue), Hayward Gallery, London, 1992, n.p.).