Untitled

Magritte may well have intended this work to announce the pending liberation of Belgium by the allied forces or to commemorate the end of the Second World War, with its emphatic symbolism of the sky-flag, the dark, threatening background with a new dawn appearing on the horizon, and the presence of the bi-plane. Later in 1945 a weekly review edited by friends of Magritte was founded and named Le Ciel Bleu, which spelled out a new 'morality' and happiness for all'.

This work is not the first time Magritte had reacted to the circumstances of war. In Le Drapeau Noir of 1937, which is now in the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, he gave foretaste of the terror to come.