Ren Magritte (1898-1967)

Seven Drawings: Lettres persanes (Un Peu de l'me des bandits)

Details

Ren Magritte (1898-1967)
Seven Drawings: Lettres persanes (Un Peu de l'me des bandits)
I) signed 'Mag' (center right)
II) double-sided; signed 'Magritte' (lower center, recto); signed again, dated and inscribed 'Ren Magritte 1960 'Lettres persanes' et sa gensse. Harry Torczyner' (verso)
III) signed 'Mag' (lower right)
IV) double-sided; signed 'Mag' (lower right, recto)
V) signed 'Mag' (lower right)
VI) signed 'Mag' (lower center)
VII) double-sided; signed with initials 'R.M.' (upper left, recto); numbered 'VIIa' (verso)
black ball-point pen on paper
each 8.1/8 x 5.3/8 in. (20.6 x 13.6 cm.)
Drawn in 1960 (7)

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist by Harry Torczyner

Literature

J.T. Soby, Ren Magritte, exh. cat., The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1965, p. 19 (illustrated, pp. 64-65).
J.J. Spector, Aesthetics of Freud: A Study in Psychoanalysis and Art, New York, 1972, p. 175 (illustrated, figs. 33-34).
H. Torczyner, Ren Magritte: signes et images, Paris, 1977, pp. 146-147, nos. 277-284 (illustrated).
S. Gablik, Magritte, New York, 1985, pp. 106-107 and 203, nos. 98-106 (illustrated, pp. 104-105).
H. Torczyner, L'Ami Magritte: correspondance et souvenirs, Antwerp, 1992, pp. 155-156 (illustrated).
R. Magritte, Magritte/Torczyner: Letters Between Friends, New York, 1994, pp. 113-120 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

Lettres persanes are preliminary drawings for the oil painted the same year, Un Peu de l'me des bandits. Magritte told Andr Bosmans in a letter of July 1960 that they are "the result of inspiration which occurred at the end of the research posed by the problem of the violin: As always, from the beginning of the research, the solution was contained in the first drawing (which included a 'knot'), I had to discover what it indicated: the white knot of a formal collar. This first image is 'good' and would be worth painting...even though it is not an answer to a problem" (quoted in D. Sylvester, S. Whitfield and M. Raeburn, Ren Magritte, Catalogue Raisonn, London, 1993, vol. III (Oil Paintings, Objects and Bronzes 1949-1967), p. 322).

In these drawings, Magritte experiments with the resonances of different images in relation to the violin--as the body of a butterfly, the spine of a leaf, and the body of his character 'The Healer,' among others. Sylvester notes that the numbering of the sketches may have been an afterthought by the artist, in order to show the progression of the images which led to the discovery.

According to Magritte, the title Un Peu de l'me des bandits was suggested by his friend Louis Scutenaire. It was originally the title of a book written in 1913 by Emile Michon about a gang of thieves known as the 'Bande Bonnot.'

Seven drawings in one lot (7)