René Magritte

Lou Cosyn, Brussels

Sale: Christie's London, June 28, 1983, lot 225

Private Collection, Spain

Acquired from the above

Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte 1898-1967, 1979 

Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, René Magritte, 1987-88, no. 116

David Sylvester, Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. IV, London, 1994, no. 1585, illustrated p. 285

Very good condition. Upon close inspection, light surface scuffing/rubbing can be seen to lower left corner, to the top right and left and under the figure's head. There are 2 spots of inclusion to the paper above the beak and under the signature that can be seen which is probably inherent to the media.
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.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Birds often appear in Magritte's work and, due to their association with flight and escape, they appealed to the artist's interest in the symbolism of dreams, the basis of much of his work. Magritte's choice of a stone in the shape of a bird's head stresses on the one hand the heaviness of the material but on the other hand it gives the image the appearance of weightlessness, invoking a poetic dimension in contrast to the physical dimension charted by science. As he wrote to André Bosmans in 1961: "It is heaviness that is suggested and not its laws; it is suggested without physics" (quoted in Jacques Meuris, Magritte, London, 1988, p. 96).

The realism of La Connaissance absolue, a challenge to the dominant shift towards abstraction in the arts of the period, serves to reinforce the artist's curious vision. As Siegfried Gohr wrote: "The crisis of vision prompted again and again by Magritte cannot be reduced to the sense that the world has gone off the rails; rather, it evokes a world that has become questionable, in the truest sense of the word, to its core. Magritte demonstrates this not by means of abstract experiments but by investigating concrete properties of objects, sensed in quite individual terms" (Siegfried Gohr, 'The Charming Provocateur', in René Magritte: The Key to Dreams (exhibition catalogue), Vienna, 2005, pp. 23-24).