René Magritte

Harry Torczyner, New York (commissioned from the artist)
Bodley Gallery, New York (acquired from the above by 1962)
Private Collection, USA (acquired from the above in 1964. Sold: Sotheby's, London, 4th December 2000, lot 3)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

New York, Bodley Gallery, Magritte, 1962, no. 9, illustrated in the catalogue
Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Summer Loans, 1970
New York, Sidney Janis Gallery, Magritte, 1977, no. 17 (titled La Nuit de Pise)

Harry Torczyner, Magritte, Ideas and Images, New York, 1977, no. 85, illustrated p. 61 (titled La Nuit de Pise)
Harry Torczyner, L'Ami Magritte: correspondance et souvenirs, Antwerp, 1992, no. 48 (discussed in a letter from Magritte to Torczyner, 8th October 1958) & no. 51 (discussed in a letter from Magritte to Torczyner, 20th October 1958)
David Sylvester (ed.), Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné: Oil Paintings, Objects and Bronzes 1949-1967, London, 1993, vol. III, no. 881, illustrated p. 294

The canvas is unlined. Apart from some small spots of retouching, mainly in the sky and at the edges, visible under ultra-violet light, this work is in good condition. Colours: Overall fairly accurate in the printed catalogue illustration, although the sky has a more blue-grey and less purple tonality in the original.
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Depicting the leaning tower of Pisa 'supported' by a feather, Souvenir de voyage is a remarkable example of the way in which Magritte's art appropriates images from popular culture, and turns them into fantastic compositions. Reproductions of famous paintings, travel brochures, postcards and other souvenirs were often seized upon as sources for his paintings and gouaches, as is the case in the present work. Since the leaning tower of Pisa holds the same mystifying appeal within architecture as Mona Lisa does in painting, Magritte would have certainly relished its status as a popular icon. By adding the feather as a support for the famously unstable building, the artist seeks to subvert the laws of physics, as well as to question the viewer's perception of an image so deeply rooted in common culture.

 

The present work is one of three oils that Torczyner, a lawyer and friend of Magritte's, commissioned from the artist in June 1958, and was completed by August of that year. When Torczyner questioned the background of this painting, which differs from the sky painted in another version of the tower of Pisa, Magritte explained in a letter of 8^th October 1958: 'The Tower of Pisa is also new, with its necessary feather. The background differs from those of the other versions of this picture, so that they can be distinguished one from another – and also so as not to lose the possibility of seeing the Tower against a sky lit by the setting sun' (quoted in D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., p. 294).

 

The idea of the leaning tower of Pisa originated in a drawing of 1949 and a gouache of 1952, both depicting the building leaning against an oversized upright spoon. The image of the tower 'supported' by a feather first appeared in an oil of 1953, with a more literal title La Nuit de Pise. The title Magritte chose for the present work, that first appeared in a 1926 oil, was conceivably inspired by J.A. Gobineau's book Souvenirs de voyage, which Magritte had in his library. Its more poetic resonance certainly struck a chord with the artist and his inclination for unusual titles, and emphasises the ubiquitous appeal of the image.