René Magritte (1898-1967)

Le Chemin de Damas

Details

René Magritte (1898-1967)
Le Chemin de Damas
signed 'Magritte' (upper left) and titled 'Le Chemin de Damas' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
19½ x 28¾in. (50.2 X 73.2cm.)
Painted in 1966

Provenance

Alexander Iolas, Paris, 1967.
Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 5 December 1973, lot 95 (¨35,000).
Davlyn Gallery, New York, by whom acquired at the above sale and from whom purchased by the present owner.

Literature

Letter from Magritte to Bosmans, 31 May 1966, in Magritte Bosmans, pp. 452-3.
Letter from Magritte to Bosmans, 17 July 1966, in Magritte Bosmans, p. 457.
Louis Scutenaire, [untitled text], in Paris Iolas, 1967.
S. Gablik, Magritte, London, 1970, no. 135 (illustrated p. 159).
D. Sylvester, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, Oil Paintings, Objects and Bronzes, 1949-1967, vol. III, London, 1994, no. 1042 (illustrated p. 431).

Exhibited

New York, Geneva, Milan and Paris, Galerie Iolas, Magritte, les images en soi, 1967.
New York, Davlyn Gallery, 1974, no. 19.

Lot Essay

Le Chemin de Damas was probably completed in early July 1966, after Magritte returned from a month's holiday in Italy.

Magritte mentioned the idea behind the work in a letter of 31 May 1966 to André Bosmans (Fig. 2), "J'ai trouvé deux autres images où le vide (et non l'invisible) se trouve entre un chapeau et un costume" (see Sylvester, op.cit., p. 431). The other work was Le Pèlerin (Sylvester no. 1043). Both are self portraits.

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