Lot 322
  • 322

René Magritte

Estimate
250,000 - 350,000 GBP
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Description

  • René Magritte
  • Les Fenêtres de l'aube
  • signed Magritte (lower right)
  • oil on canvas
  • 73 by 54.2cm., 28 3/4 by 21 3/8 in.

Provenance

Galerie L’Époque, Brussels (acquired directly from the artist)
Galerie Le Centaure, Brussels (acquired from the above in 1929)
Edouard-Léon-Théodore Mesens, Brussels (acquired from the above in 1932-33)
Marc Hendrickx, Brussels (acquired from the above in the late 1950s)
Mr & Mrs Leonard Horwich, Chicago (acquired in 1960)
Sale: Finarte, Milan, 13th-16th May 1968
Purchased at the above sale by the father of the present owner

Exhibited

Chicago, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Hyde Park Collects: Hyde Park-Kenwood Centennial Exhibition, 1962, no. 8
Chicago, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, René Magritte, 1964, no. 6

Literature

David Sylvester & Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, London, 1992, vol. I, no. 268, illustrated p. 307

Condition

The canvas is not lined. UV examination reveals one fine line of retouching (approx. 3cm) to the white cushion at the left, and a few scattered areas of retouching (the largest approx. 4cm long to the centre of the lower edge) and a few further scattered spots of old retouching in places to the black background. There is some very minor canvas undulation to the lower and upper left corners.This work is in overall good condition.
"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."

Catalogue Note

René Magritte’s Les Fenêtres de l'aube is an enthralling depiction of trompe l'œil handkerchiefs, rendered in the style of a Dutch Renaissance painting, that are inexplicably positioned with a pastoral landscape as seen through a window or depicted in a postcard. Magritte’s idiosyncratic form of Surrealism emerged in the middle of the 1920s, following a short flirtation with Cubist and Futurist art. Unlike the Surrealist techniques espoused by Breton and his followers that were primarily concerned with elucidating dream-like imagery and manifesting the sub-conscious, Magritte relied on the principles of collage, combining concrete objects in senseless compositions to pictorially represent his doubts about the nature of existence.

Marcel Lecomte, a Belgian poet active within the Dada and Surrealist groups and a lifelong friend of Magritte’s, astutely described the painter’s compositional technique in a text written in 1961: ‘The objects and figures… were never meant to exist collectively. They are always very strongly singled out, so that we feel their presence in a very concrete way … What event are they waiting for, unless it is that of the mystery of their meeting on the same canvas, the mystery of their close, combined identity?’ (quoted in Sarah Whitfield, Magritte (exhibition catalogue), The South Bank Centre, London, 1992, p. 37). In the present work, the objects and landscape possess an enigmatic autonomy as they are suspended in space. An acute tension is created between the flat plane of the dark canvas and the deep space of the landscape and the apparent three-dimensionality of the handkerchiefs, emphasising the mystery that Magritte expertly conjures in his works.

In 1920 Magritte was introduced to Edouard-Léon-Théodore Mesens by their mutual acquaintance, the Belgian artist Karel Maes at the first exhibition of the artist’s Cubo-Futurist work organised by the Centre d’Art in Brussels. Mesens was a man of numerous talents and occupations – a musician, poet, critic and gallerist – who was to become Magritte’s most vociferous supporter and promoter. In the mid-1920s Mesens and Magritte published the short-lived reviews Oesophage and Marie and contributed to the last edition of Francis Picabia’s Dadaist review 391. Having partly abandoned his musical career Mesens set about selling and promoting avant-garde art, first at the Galerie Manteau, and later at Paul-Gustave van Hecke’s Galerie L’Époque in Brussels. Mesens and Van Hecke became the principal dealers in Magritte’s work, and as such they sold the present composition to the Galerie Le Centaure in 1929. Soon after the sale the Galerie Le Centaure was forced to close and the stock liquidated and Mesens was able to buy a number of paintings, including the present work.