Live Auction 4420Impressionist/Modern
René Magritte (1898-1967)
Lot 8

René Magritte (1898-1967)

Etudes pour l'au-delà

Closed10 February 2012

Price Realised

GBP 9,375

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René Magritte (1898-1967)
Etudes pour l'au-delà
signed 'magritte' (lower left), inscribed and numbered 'Soleil 5' (upper right), inscribed again 'Le soleil brille pour tous' (lower centre)
pencil on paper
10 1/8 x 7 in. (27 x 17.9 cm.)
Executed circa 1938

Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels, no. B127.
Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 24 June 1996, lot 226A.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Specialist note

As regards the sun, I have found an answer: a grave. On the ground is a grave-stone and the sun illuminates the sky, the earth and the grave. The answer is of the present moment and may become inadequate in the future. Taking the sun as the starting point of the journey we are engaged upon, taking the sun as our origin, we cannot for the time being envisage any more disant conclusion to this journey than death. This is a present certainty, and as the title of the picture, the expresion 'The beyond' recovers an emotional content.

Magritte in a letter to Breton, June 1934