RENE MAGRITTE (1898-1967)

Le maître du plaisir

Details

RENE MAGRITTE (1898-1967)
Le maître du plaisir
signed top left 'Magritte'--signed again, titled and dated on the stretcher 'Magritte 1926 - "LE MAITRE DU PLAISIR"'
oil on canvas
25½ x 31½ in. (65 x 80 cm.)
Painted in 1926

Provenance

P.G. van Hecke, Brussels (1926)
E.L.T. Mesens, Brussels (acquired from the above in 1933)
Galerie André-François Petit, Paris (acquired from the above in 1960)
Galerie Jacques Tronche, Paris
Gino Lizzola, Milan
Anon. sale; Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, Nov. 14, 1984, lot 65 (illustrated in color)
Acquired from the above by the present owner

Literature

P. Waldberg, René Magritte, Brussels, 1965, p. 81 (illustrated)
H.H. Lerfeldt, CRAS, Sept., 1973, p. 86
A. Robbe-Grillet and R. Magritte, La belle captive, Brussels, 1975, p. 123 (illustrated)
M.M. Gedo, "Meditations and Madness: The Art of René Magritte," In the Mind's Eye: Dada and Surrealism, Chicago, 1984, p. 80 (illustrated, fig. 18)
D. Sylvester, S. Whitfield and M. Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, London, 1993, vol. I (Oil Paintings, 1916-1930), pp. 172-173, no. 85 (illustrated, p. 172)

Exhibited

Brussels, Galerie Le Centaure, Magritte, April-May, 1927, no. 6
New York, Julien Levy Gallery, René Magritte, Jan., 1938, no. 2
Paris, Galerie André-François Petit, Hans Bellmer, Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Francis Picabia, Yves Tanguy, Nov.-Dec., 1963 (illustrated in color)
Arnhem, Gemeentemuseum, Belgische Surrealisten, July-Sept., 1964, no. 27
Turin, Galleria Notizie, Magritte: Opere Scelte del 1925 al 1962, March-April, 1965 (illustrated). The exhibition traveled to Rome, Galleria La Medusa, June, 1965.
L'Aquila, Castello Spagnolo, Alternative Attuali/2, Aug.-Sept., 1965, p. 7, no. 7 (illustrated)
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Ltd., Magritte, Oct.-Nov., 1973, p. 57, no. 7 (illustrated)
Darmstadt, Kunsthalle, Realismus und Realität, May-July, 1975, p. 23, no. 15 (illustrated in color)
New York, Marlborough Gallery, Inc., Masters of the 19th and 20th Centuries, May-June, 1983, no. 29 (illustrated in color)
Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, René Magritte, Nov., 1987-Feb., 1988, no. 28 (illustrated)
Tokyo, Musée Préfectural de Yamaguchi, René Magritte, April-May, 1988, p. 48, no. 15 (illustrated). The exhibition traveled to Tokyo, Musée National d'Art Moderne, May-June, 1988.
Madrid, Fundación Juan March, Magritte, Jan.-April, 1989, p. 16, no. 5 (illustrated in color).

Lot Essay

The most likely source for the odd figure in the present painting is a drawing published by Waldemar Dreyer in 1893 in a Danish magazine. The drawing depicted a masked tribal dancer performing for a European man on his right, with the other members of his tribe observing him from his left and behind.

Magritte has moved the figure from its original position slightly to the left, and has replaced the line created by the tribe members with a tightrope connecting the silo in the background to the sculpted pole in the foreground. To the figure's right, a stairway takes the place of the single seated figure from the original composition. The theatrical nature of the original is alluded to in Magritte's version, the wood-grain curtains which he uses to frame his picture on both edges duplicating the stage-like quality of the earlier work.