René Magritte

Galerie Lou Cosyn, Brussels
Brook Street Gallery, London
Acquired from the above in 1978

Brussels, Galerie Dietrich, Exposition René Magritte, 1944, n.n. 
Brussels, Galerie des Editions La Boétie, Surréalisme, 1946, no. 71
Verviers, Société royale des beaux-arts de Verviers, René Magritte, 1947, no. 9
London, Grosvenor Gallery, Magritte, 1961, no. 27 
Turin, Galleria Galatea, Magritte, 1962, no. 20
Milan, Galleria Falanga, Magritte, 1962, no. 19
London, Hayward Gallery, Dada and Surrealism Reviewed, 1978, no. 16.13
Brussels, Palais des beaux-arts, Rétrospective Magritte, 1978, no. 129, illustrated in the catalogue
Paris, Musée national a'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Rétrospective Magritte, 1978-79, no. 129
London, Hayward Gallery, South Bank Centre; New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Houston, Menil Collection & Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, Magritte, 1992-93, no. 87

Paul Nougé, René Magritte ou Les Images défendues, Brussels, 1943, illustrated p. 50 
Patrick Waldberg, René Magritte, Brussels, 1965, illustrated p. 181
Magritte (exhibition catalogue), The Arts Council, London, 1969, illustrated p. 65
José Vovelle, Le Surréalisme en Belgique, Brussels, 1972, no. 139
David Sylvester, ed., Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. II, London, 1993, no. 528, illustrated p. 314

This work is in overall good condition. The canvas is lined with a transparent mylar plastic layer. UV examination reveals some intermittent small spots of retouching to the left and right extreme edges, a 2inch-long line to the man's stomach and a further few very small spots above his knee.
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.
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Painted in 1943, the present work was completed after Magritte had already established himself as a successful member of the Surrealists in Paris. L’Océan was painted during Magritte's self-proclaimed "sunlit period" which emerged in an effort to overcome the despair of the ongoing war. David Sylvester describes Magritte’s sudden evolution of style as a revelation: “then in the spring of 1943 he had a revelation. He perceived that to paint effective escapist pictures it wasn't enough to change his iconography; he had to change his style. And of course the great escapist style is Impressionist” (David Sylvester, Magritte, The Silence of the World, New York, 1992, p. 259).

Inspired by Renoir's late paintings of voluptuous female nudes depicted in lush, idyllic landscapes, Magritte used a more luminous palette during this period, as evidenced by the present work. Magritte wrote in 1955: "For the period I call 'Surrealism in full sunlight,' I am trying to join together two mutually exclusive things: 1) a feeling of levity, intoxication, happiness, which depends on a certain mood and on an atmosphere that certain Impressionists—or rather, Impressionism in general—have managed to render in painting. Without Impressionism, I do not believe we would know this feeling of real objects perceived through colors and nuances, and free of all classical reminiscences... and, 2) a feeling of the mysterious quality of objects" (letter to G. Puel, as quoted in Harry Torczyner, René Magritte, Ideas and Images, Paris, 1977, p. 186).