Magritte, René

Highly important series of over forty autograph letters and postcards signed ("René Magritte," "Magritte" "Magr" and "Mag"), many illustrated with sketches in ballpoint, in French, to the Belgian Surrealist poet, Paul Colinet, upwards of fifty pages, various sizes, one of the letters with a long postscript by Irène Hamoir, with a telegram, a typescript copy of a letter by Magritte and a fragment of a letter by Magritte to Colinet mentioning Eluard, two envelopes, the letters largely undated, ca. 1934 to 1957; accompanied by eight letters and postcards by Paul Colinet; encapsulated in mylar and housed in a brown morocco binder.

Portions of some of the letters and two illustrations included in: René Magritte. Écrits complets. Paris, 1979.

The road to Surrealism. In 1916, Magritte quit high school and enrolled in the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. He first painted in the Cubist and Futurist manner but felt more strongly drawn to a literary circle inspired by Dada. With Magritte as its pivotal figure, this group formed the heart of the Surrealism that developed in Belgium between 1925 and 1930. Magritte earned his livelihood as a graphic artist for a wallpaper factory and by designing advertisements for fashion shops. Becoming acquainted with "Pittura Metafisica," Magritte rejected his early work and set out in a new direction. When his initial Surrealist work was met with a lack of understanding from the Brussels art scene, Magritte moved to Paris in 1927. Through André Breton, Magritte became acquainted with the work of Max Ernst, Francis Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp. During those years his distinctively quirky, original yet enigmatic style began to mature. Realistically executed human figures and objects were torn from their usual contexts and reintroduced to visually startling new constellations revealing new content.

Magritte became disgusted by the superficial methods of the Parisian Surrealists and their dependence on dreams, drugs, and magic for vision. This, coupled with his ennui of the polemical atmosphere in Paris art circles, prompted Magritte's return to Brussels in 1930. Ironically, although Magritte's personal connections with Surrealism became strained, his eye-catching artwork remained clearly Surrealistic in style. As a result, he was represented and recognized in all of the important Surrealism exhibitions of the 1930s. It was during this phase of his career when Magritte met the Belgian Surrealist poet, Paul Colinet, in 1933. They became close friends rapidly. In fact, Colinet's first published work, a poem set to music entitled, Marie trombone chapeau buse, contained an illustration by Magritte. A fellow traveler in the Belgian Surrealist circles, Colinet only occasionally took part in their activities. He refused to attach his name to their tracts and kept a distance with regard to their political actions. Yet, the present correspondence reveals a remarkable influence he wielded on Magritte and his oeuvre.

A rich correspondence in which Magritte explains his own art theory and the literary influences on his art.

Magritte herewith sets out his views on answering the question: "What does this picture represent?"

 ". . . Une belle idée que j'ai . . . c'est à propos de la question naïve 'Ce tableau représente quoi?' Mon idée c'est que l'intérrogateur voit ce que cela représente, mais qu'il se demande ce qui représente le tableau, et devant la difficulté d'aller de ce côté d'où l'on verrait ce que le tableau 'représente.' Ce qui représente le tableau, ce sont nos idées et nos sentiments, en somme c'est celui qui regarde la tableau qui représente ce qu'il voit . . ."

In another letter, Magritte gives his definition of the art of painting:

"L'art de peindre convient si peu à exprimer des idées ou des sentiments que, si l'on considère la peinture comme moyen d'expression, l'on se demande souvent avec perplexité ce que les tableaux signifient, ou bien l'on prend la liberté de définir avec assurance l'intention du peintre, voire de tramer un sens au tableau que l'on regarde."

Magritte's letters cover a wide range of topics: artistic, literary and surreal. He discusses at some length his picture of the hen and the boiled eggs (finally painted in a different form as Variante de la tristesse) asking whether Colinet thinks the egg should be intact or "decapitated" and requesting a proper title for the work. In numerous letters he discusses the question of appropriate titles for his paintings. Having acknowledged that Colinet has a rare talent for finding the most suitable title for his paintings, Magritte frequently asks his advice. He sometimes offers several alternatives, and often includes a sketch of the picture in question. On the verso of an undated letter Magritte pens a landscape of sorts, a derivative no doubt of L'Empire des Lumières, and writes beneath it, "un titre plaese! (prononcer un 'titre plisse')." In green ink, next to the drawing, Colinet provides four title options: "Les Bonnes Nouvelles," "La Présence D'Esprit," "La Science du Mouvement" "and L'Art Magique."

The drawings in these letters include sketches for Hommage à Von Stroheim, an early version of Variante de la tristesse, Le Voyageur, and La Fontaine de jouvence.  Random sketches of flowers and fruit also decorate Magritte's pages of text.  A whimsical drawing of a group of people wearing one big hat is captioned by Magritte: "Pensé aussi à un chapeau pour plusieurs personnes."  A detailed sketch of a man's head in a bowler hat on a chair decorates yet another letter.

Magritte gives his opinion of various works of literature in the course of his correspondence with Colinet. He expresses his disgust with André Breton's  L'art magique, " . . . ce livre me dégoûte, étant plus sensible que Breton sans doute . . . ." He also clearly states he cannot share Colinet's enthusiasm for the work of Jorge Luis Borges. Magritte notes he has just received books by Paul Morand, Joseph-Arthur, comte de Gobineau and Martin Heidegger. He remarks Heidegger reminds him of Gide: "Ce n'est pas avec de beaux sentiments que l'on fait de la bonne littérature —Mais H[eidegger] fait état de l'étonnement du vrai philosophe, comme d'un sentiment essential pour bien penser—Gide méprisait certainement pas les sentiments: l'attention, l'exigence, entre autres."

Digressing on the significance of the number 9, Magritte's prose becomes a bit surreal: "vous avez déjà  remarqué que le chiffre 18 compose de 1 et de 8, soit 1 + 8 =9 . . . le chiffre 9, multiplié par lui-même donc 81, soit 8 = 1 = 9 . . ."

Magritte's correspondence forms an extraordinary record of the artist's creative process in addition to reveaing the literary and artistic influences on his work during the most productive period of his career.