Lot Essay
The present work was painted a year after Magritte finished the first version of this subject (ed. D. Sylvester, op. cit., vol. III, no. 764; destroyed by fire in 1978), and was probably done at the request of Alexander Iolas. The carrot-bottle is a perfect example of Magritte's idea of 'elective affinities', that is, the secret relationships between different images and the objects represented by these images. In a lecture delivered at Antwerp in 1938, Magritte elaborated on his method:
As my researches had necessarily to arrive at a single
correct answer for each object, my investigation took
the form of trying to find the solution of a problem
with three points of reference: the object, the
something linked to it in the obscurity of my
consciousness and the light into which this something
had to be brought. (ibid., vol. II, p. 17)
Magritte's friend Nougé suggested the title Un discours de la méthode for this subject, refering to the way in which the painting reveals Magritte's most characteristic means of image-making.
As my researches had necessarily to arrive at a single
correct answer for each object, my investigation took
the form of trying to find the solution of a problem
with three points of reference: the object, the
something linked to it in the obscurity of my
consciousness and the light into which this something
had to be brought. (ibid., vol. II, p. 17)
Magritte's friend Nougé suggested the title Un discours de la méthode for this subject, refering to the way in which the painting reveals Magritte's most characteristic means of image-making.