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Lot Essay
'About that time [1915], through a trick of fate, someone handed me the illustrated catalogue of an exhibition of Futurist painting with a condescending smile, and no doubt the stupid intention of pulling my leg. I had before my eyes a powerful challenge to common sense which worried me greatly... In a state of positive intoxication I painted a whole series of futurist pictures. However, I don't think I have even been an orthodox Futurist, because the lyricism I wanted to achieve had an unvarying centre unrelated to artistic Futurism. It was a pure and powerful feeling: eroticism... The elements which entered into the composition of my pictures were loosely defined shapes and colours, so that those shapes and colours could be modified according to the demands of a certain dynamic rhythm' (Magritte, 'La ligne de vie', lecture given on 20 November 1938 at the Koninklijk Museum van Schoone Kunsten in Antwerp, reconstructed text quoted in D. Sylvester, ed., René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. V, Antwerp, 1997, Chron. 38.5.2, p. 17).
Nu allongé is an alluring image of Magritte's wife, Georgette, reclining against a rich tapestry of colours. While the red drapery and Georgette's body retain a semblance of texture and depth, for the most part Magritte has flattened the surface of the painting by juxtaposing planes of pure colour. In this way, even the flesh tones of his wife's body seem to lose definition, so that her thigh and her lower torso become elements in Magritte's personal exploration of shape and colour. Furthermore the angularity of this linear construction is contrasted by the grace and fluidity of the line that describes the shape of the body, creating the dynamic rhythms of the Futurists, while at the same time presenting an image of erotic langour.
Nu allongé is an alluring image of Magritte's wife, Georgette, reclining against a rich tapestry of colours. While the red drapery and Georgette's body retain a semblance of texture and depth, for the most part Magritte has flattened the surface of the painting by juxtaposing planes of pure colour. In this way, even the flesh tones of his wife's body seem to lose definition, so that her thigh and her lower torso become elements in Magritte's personal exploration of shape and colour. Furthermore the angularity of this linear construction is contrasted by the grace and fluidity of the line that describes the shape of the body, creating the dynamic rhythms of the Futurists, while at the same time presenting an image of erotic langour.