René Magritte

Sale: Palais Galliéra, Paris, 8th December 1973, lot 47
Galleria dello Scudo, Verona
Landau Fine Art, Montreal
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Milan, Galleria Schwarz, Magritte, 1962
Rome, L'Attico, Magritte, 1963
(possibly) Geneva, Galerie Alexander Iolas, Magritte, 1963

Letter from Magritte to Iolas, 26th September 1962
Letter from Magritte to Bosmans, 1st November 1962
David Sylvester (ed.), Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné. Gouaches, Temperas, Watercolours and Papiers Collés 1918-1967, London, 1994, vol. IV, no. 1514, illustrated p. 246

Executed on a strong sheet of cream wove paper, not laid down, taped to the mount on the reverse of all four corners, floating in the mount. This work is in very good original condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate, although the blues are slightly stronger in the original.
"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."

Le Château des Pyrénées in one of only two gouache versions that Magritte executed on the theme of the large boulder with a castle on the top, suspended mid-air in an otherwise empty seascape. Magritte first painted this motif in the famous oil version (fig. 1), which was commissioned by his friend Harry Torczyner in 1959. This monumental oil, one of the largest canvases of Magritte's career, is now in the collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. The title was first mentioned in Magritte's letter to Torczyner on 20^th April 1959: ''The castle in the Pyrenees' is advancing in leaps and bounds; it will, I believe, be an image worthy of its name: it will be in the nature of an apparition, which would have pleased Anne [sic] Radcliffe, I think, if her book 'The Castle in the Pyrenees' is a genuine expression of what she liked' (quoted in D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., vol. III, p. 312). Magritte owned the Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe's novel in French translation, titled Les Visions du château des Pyrénées.

 

The present work is a remarkable example of Magritte's power of transforming ordinary, everyday images or objects into an extraordinary, mysterious composition, characterised by the clarity of expression that marked his late œuvre. It combines the immutable solidity of the rock, symbolising permanence and memory, and the ever-changing elements around it. The images of a cloudy sky and of the rocks appear frequently throughout Magritte's art, and in Le Château des Pyrénées they are used in such a way as to subvert the viewer's perception of time, space and matter. The timeless quality of the landscape and the stone is disturbed only by the rolling waves of the sea and the shifting clouds.

 

The image of the rock appears in a number of variations throughout Magritte's work, often as an ordinary scene, such as a figure, a landscape or a still-life, fossilised into stone. A giant boulder, similar to the one in the present work, sometimes replaces a person or an object, as in Le Monde invisible (fig. 2). Writing about the way in which Magritte combined the image of the stone with other elements, Sarah Whitfield commented: 'In making these three elements, rock, sea and sky, as studiously neutral as the paint, Magritte distances himself from the two givens of the landscape painting – time and place – and risks an art of pure reflection and contemplation. It is as abstract in its conception as a work by Rothko, who was one of the first to remark upon the abstract qualities of Magritte's art' (S. Whitfield in Magritte (exhibition catalogue), The Hayward Gallery, London, 1992, n.p.).

 

Fig. 1, René Magritte, Le Château des Pyrénées, 1959, oil on canvas, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem

Fig. 2, René Magritte, Le Monde invisible, 1954, oil on canvas, The Menil Collection, Houston

Fig. 3, Magritte, 1965. Photograph by Duane Michals