Locomotive

As a young student, Magritte met his fellow students Victor Servranckx and Pierre Louis Flouquet around 1919-1920. Magritte was searching for a style and for the meaning of his painting. In January 1920 he had his first exhibition together with Flouquet at the gallery called Le Centre d'Art. The subjects were locomotives, railway stations and landscapes composed of flat linear planes in a quasi-cubist style. Flouquet and Servranckx were important supporters of theories of the industrial esthetic, derived from the futurists.
Although the whereabouts of the present lot were unknown until now, the existence of the painting was not. In April and May 1923 Magritte showed seven works at an international exhibition in Antwerp organised by the review a Ira. It was organised at the premises of the Cercle Royal Artistique from 21 April until 4 May. In a letter from Magritte to the organisers of this exhibition the artist mentions that he was hoping to show the 'Locomotive', measuring 50 x 40 cm, for 500 Bfr. From this information we may conclude that the present lot was shown at this exhibition. Magritte responded most positively to Futurism in 1920. The imaging and its quasi-cinematic treatment here shows the persistance of that interest. Magritte slowly moved away from his formal abstract style. In 1925 he changed towards a figurative surrealistic style more indebted to artists like Max Ernst.