Lot Essay
Much of the challenge the viewer encounters in the imagery of a painting by Magritte stems from its accepted or traditionally symbolic meanings, in contrast to the more private and complex connotations it holds for the artist. The tree is a potent universal symbol, which Magritte further invests with his own idiosyncratic interpretations.
Growing from the earth towards the sun, a tree is
an image of certain happiness. To perceive this
image we must be immobile like the tree. When we
are moving, it is the tree which becomes the
spectator. It is witness, equally, in the shape
of chairs, tables and doors, to the more or less
agitated spectacle of our life. The tree, having
become a coffin, disappears into the earth. And
when it is transformed into fire, it vanishes into
the air. (R. Magritte, reprinted in S. Gablik,
Magritte, New York, 1985, p. 28)
In Le seize Septembre Magritte joins three powerful symbols: the tree, the crescent moon and the night. He then proceeds to intensify their reality by playing with their natural order.
...Magritte has attained the immobility which
makes it possible for him to experience form
inwardly. Out of this immobility grows silence,
the mysterious silence in which the darkness of
tree, painted in all its detail precisely as
Caspar David Friedrich would have painted it,
develops from intimacy to immensity. Now Magritte
is the complete Romantic, who makes night seize
upon the space occupied by the tree. He places
the moon not above, beside, or behind the tree,
but in front of it. And this is the one sign
that shows us that we are not in the presence of
a nineteenth-century painter. The names of poets
like Novalis and Rilke occur to us. (A. M. Hammacher,
Magritte, New York, 1973, p. 146)
The title of this painting may appear mysterious at first and hint at private meanings. However, the artist wrote: "I have just painted the moon on a tree in the blue-gray colors of evening. Scutenaire has come up with a very beautiful title: Le seize Septembre. I think it 'fits,' so from September 16th on, we'll call it done." (letter to Mirabelle Dors and Maurice Rapin, Aug. 6, 1956; reprinted in H. Torczyner, Magritte: Ideas and Images, New York, 1977, pp. 121 and 260)
Magritte painted a second and larger version of this subject in 1957 (Menil Collection, Houston).
Growing from the earth towards the sun, a tree is
an image of certain happiness. To perceive this
image we must be immobile like the tree. When we
are moving, it is the tree which becomes the
spectator. It is witness, equally, in the shape
of chairs, tables and doors, to the more or less
agitated spectacle of our life. The tree, having
become a coffin, disappears into the earth. And
when it is transformed into fire, it vanishes into
the air. (R. Magritte, reprinted in S. Gablik,
Magritte, New York, 1985, p. 28)
In Le seize Septembre Magritte joins three powerful symbols: the tree, the crescent moon and the night. He then proceeds to intensify their reality by playing with their natural order.
...Magritte has attained the immobility which
makes it possible for him to experience form
inwardly. Out of this immobility grows silence,
the mysterious silence in which the darkness of
tree, painted in all its detail precisely as
Caspar David Friedrich would have painted it,
develops from intimacy to immensity. Now Magritte
is the complete Romantic, who makes night seize
upon the space occupied by the tree. He places
the moon not above, beside, or behind the tree,
but in front of it. And this is the one sign
that shows us that we are not in the presence of
a nineteenth-century painter. The names of poets
like Novalis and Rilke occur to us. (A. M. Hammacher,
Magritte, New York, 1973, p. 146)
The title of this painting may appear mysterious at first and hint at private meanings. However, the artist wrote: "I have just painted the moon on a tree in the blue-gray colors of evening. Scutenaire has come up with a very beautiful title: Le seize Septembre. I think it 'fits,' so from September 16th on, we'll call it done." (letter to Mirabelle Dors and Maurice Rapin, Aug. 6, 1956; reprinted in H. Torczyner, Magritte: Ideas and Images, New York, 1977, pp. 121 and 260)
Magritte painted a second and larger version of this subject in 1957 (Menil Collection, Houston).