René MAGRITTE (1898-1967)

Lot 15
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Estimation :
350000 - 450000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 547 240EUR
René MAGRITTE (1898-1967)
Head with female torso, circa 1941 Gouache on paper. Signed upper right. Gouache on paper. Signed upper right. H_14,6 cm W_10 cm Provenance: - most probably offered by the artist to Paul Eluard - Isidore Ducasse Fine Arts, New York - former Daniel Filipacchi collection - acquired from this collection by the current owner - private collection Bibliography: Catalogue Raisonne "Rene Magritte", David Sylvester, reproduced p. 47 under number 1165 "Mes tableaux sont des pensées visibles. " My paintings are visible thoughts. These thoughts are formed exclusively by the figures that the world offers me. These figures are brought together in an order that evokes mystery" René Magritte This gouache takes up the major figures in René Magritte's work. The silhouette such as that of "natural knowledge" is bordered by his emblematic hair while the head of the figure is a miniature version of the work "The Rape", the body as for him is the face. This representation reversing the order of Being expresses the denial of personality through an allegory of rape. We can relate this work to the illustration done for Paul Eluard's book "Moralité du sommeil". In the psychoanalysis notebook no. 90, Carl Gustav Jung points out that the word mystery derives from the Greek word "muein", which means: to hold one's lips closed. Mystery belongs to the order of the unspeakable. It is therefore beyond all logical discourse. Silence - which reigns supreme in Magritte's works - thus becomes the poetic expression of the mystery. This silence, as an expression of the mystery, also takes hold of the spectator who, faced with Magritte's works, is led to question an image whose meaning escapes him. By his refusal of any symbolic interpretation and his enigmatic titles given a posteriori by the painter or his friends, Magritte keeps our lips closed: "There is no explainable mystery in my p
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