René Magritte

Harry Torczyner, New York (acquired from the artist in 1958)

Marlborough Fine Art, London

Daniel Malingue, Paris

Sale: Christie's, London, December 2, 1975, lot 89

Galerie Melki, Paris

Private Collection (sold: Sotheby's, London, June 30, 1987, lot 74)

Waddington Galleries, London (acquired at the above sale)

Private Collection, Los Angeles (by 1992)

Minneapolis, Walker Art Museum, René Magritte, 1962, no. 37

London, The Hayward Gallery, The South Bank Centre; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Houston, The Menil Collection; The Art Institute of Chicago, Magritte, 1992-93, no. 110

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, René Magritte, 1998, no. 176

Basel, Fondation Beyeler, René Magritte, The Key to Dreams, 2005, no. 76

Patrick Waldberg, René Magritte, Brussels, 1965, illustrated p. 211 (catalogued with incorrect measurements)

René Passeron, René Magritte, Paris, 1970, illustrated p. 53 (catalogued with incorrect measurements)

Harry Torczyner, Magritte Ideas and Images, New York, 1977, no. 227, illustrated p. 125 (catalogued with incorrect measurements)

José Pierre, Magritte, Paris, 1965, illustrated p. 98 (catalogued with incorrect measurements)

David Sylvester, Magritte, The Silence of the World, New York, 1992, illustrated p. 280

David Sylvester, Sarah Whitfield and Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. III, London, 1993, no. 784, illustrated p. 203

Excellent condition. Original canvas. Under the ultra-violet light there are some fluorescing pigments in the sky which are the artist's own brushwork. There does seem to be 1 small spot of inpaint toward the upper center and perhaps another small speck just in from upper right edge; otherwise, the painting is untouched.
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.

L'Explication is one of four related compositions that Magritte painted in the beginning of the 1950s.  All four paintings, all with the same title, feature a still-life of a bottle, a carrot, and a hybrid bottle-carrot -- a perfect Surrealist ensemble.  The composition visualizes Magritte's belief in "elective affinities," or the fact that our basic understanding of the world is reliant upon seeing connections or "links in a chain" among all objects.  Because the present image perfectly explains that theory, he valued these compositions accordingly.  Another working title for this series, suggested by Magritte's colleague Nougé, was Un discours de la méthode or Discourse on method, which is yet another reference to the work's didactic usefulness.

Magritte had been developing the idea behind L'Explication since the 1930s, when he first began to consider the "problem" of individual objects and their relation to other objects, images and ideas (see fig. 3).  As David Sylvester has written, "this engagement with the 'problem' of given objects or phenomena went on.  The Survivor [see fig. 2], for example, of 1950 and The Explanation [the present painting], an image first realized in 1952, are very much in the spririt of mid-1930s paintings presenting the solution to such problems" (Sylvester, op. cit., 1992, p. 281).

After Magritte painted the first version of L'Explication (Sylvester no. 764; Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro, now destroyed), his dealer Alexander Iolas commissioned two variant compositions -- one that is nearly identical to the first (Sylvester no. 783; see fig. 4) and another in a much larger format and with a different background (Sylvester no. 784).   The present work was painted after he finished these two, and depicts the objects before a landscape rather than on a table, as they were seen in the previous paintings.   According to Sarah Whitfield, the present work  "is one of a number of works which seem to the writer to bear out Magritte's claim that a later version of an image often enriched the first.  It remained in his possession until he gave it away in 1958, which suggests that it was a version he made either for himself or, as is more likely, for Georgette" (Sarah Whitfield, Magritte (exhibition catalogue), The Hayward Gallery, London, 1992, opposite pl. 110).  In 1962, Magritte created another variant of this composition in gouache

David Sylvester relayed to us when this work was sold in 1987 that is was historically catalogued with incorrect measurements because its size was mistaken with no. 783. 

Fig. 1, The artist in Brussels, 1955.  Photograph by Georges Thiry

Fig. 2, René Magritte, Le Survivant, 1950, oil on canvas, The Menil Collection, Houston

Fig. 3, René Magritte, Le modèle rouge, 1937, oil on canvas, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

Fig. 4, René Magritte, L'Explication, 1952, oil on canvas, Private Collection