Lot Essay
On 19 October 1962, Magritte wrote to Barnet Hodes that he would begin painting some gouaches for him in a few days' time, and asked that the collector send some sheets of paper cut to the measurements he specified. Ten works, including Les belles ralits (see lot 450) and Le calligraphe were subsequently sent off by the artist, and acknowledged by Hodes in letters of 17 and 26 December.
The present gouache is a version of a similarly titled oil painting from 1958 (Sylvester, no. 891; private collection). In this enigmatic picture, a stone of indeterminate size rests alone in the landscape. Its solitude lends it a poetic gravity and importance, as the only "being" in this vast country. Indeed, for Magritte the stone represented physical laws, which possesed their own poetic language. Magritte told his friend Andr Bosmans that poet Louis Scutenaire "found" the title for the work.
The present gouache is a version of a similarly titled oil painting from 1958 (Sylvester, no. 891; private collection). In this enigmatic picture, a stone of indeterminate size rests alone in the landscape. Its solitude lends it a poetic gravity and importance, as the only "being" in this vast country. Indeed, for Magritte the stone represented physical laws, which possesed their own poetic language. Magritte told his friend Andr Bosmans that poet Louis Scutenaire "found" the title for the work.