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Lot Essay
Magritte was a painter of ideas, and to this end he deliberately avoided mannerisms of style that would distract the viewer from grasping his imagery. He adopted early on a plain, neutral painting style that evolved little if at all over the course of two decades. It dismayed his admirers then, when in 1942, in the darkest days of the Second World War, Magritte attempted to marry Surrealism to an overtly Impressionist technique, eschewing the vague grayish light and restrained surfaces of his pictures for brilliant sunlight and a
painterly manner of applying his pigments. The artist wrote, "The German occupation marked the turning point in my art. Before the war, my paintings expressed anxiety, but the experiences of war have taught me that what matters in art is to express charm. I live in a very disagreeable world, and my work is meant as a counter-offensive" (quoted in S. Gablik, op. cit., 1970, p. 146).
To confront the misery of war in this way seemed to many like a joke, but this approach is with hindsight entirely consistent with the essential philosophy of Magritte's art. This new style was ironic and incongruous in the context of reality, but entirely suited to the artist's choice of imagery. It was intended to be provocative. With its sensuous use of paint, iridescent color and frequent use of the female nude, this phase became known as Magritte's "Renoir" period.
"Many of Magritte's nudes suggest Renoir's bathers. It is also true that the later pictures of De Chirico, which he admired, were painted in a similar Renoiresque style. Magritte detested monotony, and a desire to change his style, without changing his spirit, also contributed to this move. He had had enough, not only of smooth and precise painting, but of painting altogether, and was seeking a means of self-renewal. In a sense it could be said that he called painting itself into question, much as he had previously called octs into question. The Impressionist style became itself subject-matter. Thus, Magritte's 'sunlit' style (which is how he referred to it originally, served as a kind of detonator to induce a new pictorial ferment" (S. Gablik, op. cit., p. 149).
According to Sylvester and Whitfield, the present painting was finished around the end of June 1944. The idea of a woman dressed in clothes that have the appearance of flesh first occurred to the artist in September 1943 and he intended to have the painting completed for an exhibition in November. However, Magritte did not begin the picture until June of the following year. He wrote to his friend Mariën, "I am working on the woman with the flesh dress, the titles I have thought of are: The Lost Dress, The Lost Light, The Hydra (Nouge), but I would like you to have a go as well, because these titles are only approximate" (quoted in ibid., p. 339). Around the time he completed the painting he came up with the present title--although not without later second thoughts--having taken it from a treatise by the eighteenth-century French philosopher Etienne Bonnot de Condillac. The title may also refer to a playful distortion experience of the sense of touch, in which one feels the fabric of one's clothing as being one's own skin. It may also allude generally to the sensuous nature of the artist's new style, in which the physical presence of air and light are strongly felt.
painterly manner of applying his pigments. The artist wrote, "The German occupation marked the turning point in my art. Before the war, my paintings expressed anxiety, but the experiences of war have taught me that what matters in art is to express charm. I live in a very disagreeable world, and my work is meant as a counter-offensive" (quoted in S. Gablik, op. cit., 1970, p. 146).
To confront the misery of war in this way seemed to many like a joke, but this approach is with hindsight entirely consistent with the essential philosophy of Magritte's art. This new style was ironic and incongruous in the context of reality, but entirely suited to the artist's choice of imagery. It was intended to be provocative. With its sensuous use of paint, iridescent color and frequent use of the female nude, this phase became known as Magritte's "Renoir" period.
"Many of Magritte's nudes suggest Renoir's bathers. It is also true that the later pictures of De Chirico, which he admired, were painted in a similar Renoiresque style. Magritte detested monotony, and a desire to change his style, without changing his spirit, also contributed to this move. He had had enough, not only of smooth and precise painting, but of painting altogether, and was seeking a means of self-renewal. In a sense it could be said that he called painting itself into question, much as he had previously called octs into question. The Impressionist style became itself subject-matter. Thus, Magritte's 'sunlit' style (which is how he referred to it originally, served as a kind of detonator to induce a new pictorial ferment" (S. Gablik, op. cit., p. 149).
According to Sylvester and Whitfield, the present painting was finished around the end of June 1944. The idea of a woman dressed in clothes that have the appearance of flesh first occurred to the artist in September 1943 and he intended to have the painting completed for an exhibition in November. However, Magritte did not begin the picture until June of the following year. He wrote to his friend Mariën, "I am working on the woman with the flesh dress, the titles I have thought of are: The Lost Dress, The Lost Light, The Hydra (Nouge), but I would like you to have a go as well, because these titles are only approximate" (quoted in ibid., p. 339). Around the time he completed the painting he came up with the present title--although not without later second thoughts--having taken it from a treatise by the eighteenth-century French philosopher Etienne Bonnot de Condillac. The title may also refer to a playful distortion experience of the sense of touch, in which one feels the fabric of one's clothing as being one's own skin. It may also allude generally to the sensuous nature of the artist's new style, in which the physical presence of air and light are strongly felt.