 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Art Sender offers exclusive discounta and prizes to member from time to time. Join here to stay informed
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
Artist Biography
Rene Magritte (1898-1967),
Belgian
 Rene
Magritte was born in Lessines, Belgium, on 21 November 1898. At the age of
twelve he began taking art classes in Chatelet, where he and his family
had just moved to. Painting had always seemed "vaguely magical" to
Magritte, who was an average student in school. After quitting high
school, he enrolled in 1916 at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels
where he followed the classes of drawing, Decorative Painting and
Ornamental Composition. Landscapes showing the Sambre river in which his
mother had killed herself in 1912, were among his first works.
Magritte's best friend
at the time was the young poet Pierre Bourgeois, of whom he made several
portraits. They became interested in modernity and the Italian Futurists
and invited
Theo van Doesburg
to give a lecture on the Dutch movement 'The
Style'. In 1920, Magritte's first Futurist-inspired paintings
were exhibited along with works by the painter Pierre Flouquet. Pure
geometric abstraction, which had its roots in the Northern countries,
seemed too radical to Magritte who began to search for a different
pictorial language, this time finding it under the influence of
Cubism and
Futurism.
The year of 1922 meant
a lot for Magritte. In 1922 Magritte got married with Georgette Berger,
whom he had met at the age of fifteen and met again at in 1920. Magritte
was inspired by Georgette and she became his model. He also became
friendly with Victor Servranckx, who had developed a very personnel
geometric-abstract style. This was the beginning of a new direction for
Magritte.
His first really
outstanding works date from 1922-1923 and are characterized by Cubo-Futurist
reminiscences and the pleasure of a very sensual representation in which
women and colors are the dominant elements. He had realized that resorting
to abstraction had not enabled hum to 'make reality manifest.' What he
wanted was to establish a disturbing relationship between the world and
objects. Therefore, toward 1925, he decides "only to paint objects with
all their visible details". By placing them in situations which were
unfamiliar to the spectator, he would "challenge the real world". Magritte
abandoned the plastic qualities of pictorial art in favor of a more
remote, colder style that portrayed images from which all aestheticism had
to be banished.
One of the first works
to display this change was
Nocturne
(1925). The work contains element from the iconography that Magritte
created at the time and which he used throughout his life: the painting
within a painting, the bird in flight, and fire, adding to the stage
curtain an to the wooden bilboquet. These last two elements are also at
the heart of
The last Jockey (1926) which, according to Magritte, was a
critical milestone in his entry into
Surrealism. It gave him a mysterious
feeling, an anxiety without reason.The feeling of anxiety, which
manifested itself in dark tonalities, lugubrious shapes and mysterious
juxtaposition of objects, invaded a large number of works from these
years.
In 1927 Magritte and
Georgette moved to Paris to be closer to where it all happens. He started to take
part in the activities of the Surrealists and he becomes friends with
Andre Breton.
In 1929 he even
went to Cadaques to stay with the Surrealists
Salvador Dali, Juan Miro
and
Paul Eluard
for a
holiday.
During the
same period (1925-1930), Magritte began combining words and images in his
paintings. These word-pictures were not mere illustrations of an object or
a concept. On the contrary, his work was intended to gently destabilize
our mental habits of representation. Magritte elaborated a didactic
classification of this type of painting, the simplest which consisted of
Rene Magritte
Oil Paintings
Reproductions:
The Son of Man 89cm x 114cm (35" x 45") $399
Woman Bathing 60cm x 77cm (24" x 30") $249 - Musee Royaux des Beaux Arts
The Window 60cm x 81cm (24" x 32") $249 - Private Collection
Primevère 60cm x 92cm (24" x 36") $269 - Galerie Isy Brachot
Left Behind by the Shadow 61cm x 92cm (24" x 36") $269 - Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture
The Difficult Crossing 61cm x 77cm (24" x 30") $249 - Jean Krebs Collection
The Man of the Sea 71cm x 97cm (28" x 38") $289 - Musee Royaux des Beaux Arts
The Forest 61cm x 86cm (24" x 34") $259 - Musée de l'art wallon
Attempting the Impossible 71cm x 102cm (28" x 40") $299 - Galerie Isy Brachot
The Human Condition 61cm x 83cm (24" x 33") $259 - Simon Spierer Collection
Clairvoyance (Self-Portrait) 86cm x 71cm (34" x 28") $279 - Galerie Isy Brachot
Homesickness 80cm x 105cm (32" x 41") $319 - Galerie Isy Brachot
The Return of the Flame 71cm x 95cm (28" x 37") $289 - Private Collection
The Forbidden Universe 96cm x 71cm (38" x 28") $289 - Musée d'Art Moderne
The Good Omens 115cm x 81cm (45" x 32") $339 - Berger-Hoyez collection
The Sea of Flames 107cm x 81cm (42" x 32") $329 - Private Collection
Perspective II: Manet's Balcony 71cm x 95cm (28" x 37") $289 - Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst
The Ignorant Fairy 98cm x 75cm (39" x 30") $299 - Private Collection
Personal Values 80cm x 65cm (32" x 26") $259 - Private Collection
The Happy Hand 98cm x 75cm (39" x 30") $299 - Galerie Isy Brachot
The Empire of Light 75cm x 98cm (30" x 39") $299 - Musee Royaux des Beaux Arts
Souvenir of a Journey III 81cm x 107cm (32" x 42") $329
Le Beau Monde 65cm x 84cm (26" x 33") $259 - Private Collection
The Big Family 81cm x 107cm (32" x 42") $329 - Private Collection
The Great War 81cm x 111cm (32" x 44") $329 - Private Collection
The Blank Check 81cm x 103cm (32" x 41") $319 - National Gallery of Art
L'Anniversaire 116.2cm x 89.1cm (46" x 35") $359
The Threatened Murderer 106cm x 81cm (42" x 32") $369 - Museum of Modern Art
Pleasure 119cm x 89cm (47" x 35") $359 - Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen
The Lovers 97cm x 71cm (38" x 28") $289
The Treason of Pictures(This is not a Pipe) 91cm x 65cm (36" x 26") $269 - Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Key to the Fields 65cm x 89cm (26" x 35") $269
The Discovery of Fire 87cm x 71cm (34" x 28") $279
The Rape 81cm x 109cm (32" x 43") $329
The Red Model 65cm x 89cm (26" x 35") $269 - Boymans van Beuningen Museum
The Therapist 81cm x 117cm (32" x 46") $339
Call of the Peaks 71cm x 88cm (28" x 35") $279
The Harvest 120cm x 89cm (47" x 35") $359
Voice 81cm x 106cm (32" x 42") $319
False Mirror 113cm x 75cm (45" x 30") $319
Black Magic 89cm x 122cm (35" x 48") $369
Song of Love 115cm x 89cm (45" x 35") $359
Threatening Weather 103cm x 75cm (41" x 30") $309
The Psychologist 65cm x 79cm (26" x 31") $259
The Famine 89cm x 75cm (35" x 30") $289
The Pebble 75cm x 93cm (30" x 37") $289 - Musee Royaux des Beaux Arts
Perspective I: David's Madame Recamier 107cm x 81cm (42" x 32") $329
Madame Recamier 81cm x 90cm (32" x 35") $299
The Magician 97cm x 75cm (38" x 30") $299
Golconde 100cm x 80cm (39" x 32") $309 - The Menil Collection
The Schoolmaster 80cm x 110cm (32" x 43") $329
The Listening Room 102cm x 86cm (40" x 34") $329
La Lunette D'Approche 65cm x 101cm (26" x 40") $289
The Last Jockey 100cm x 75cm (39" x 30") $299
The Giant Woman 86cm x 65cm (34" x 26") $269
La Lecture Defanse ou l'Usage de la Parole 102cm x 75cm (40" x 30") $309
The Return 89cm x 71cm (35" x 28") $279
Treasure Island 113cm x 75cm (45" x 30") $319
The Megalomania 81cm x 101cm (32" x 40") $319
The Battle 93cm x 75cm (37" x 30") $289
The Domain of Arnheim 75cm x 86cm (30" x 34") $279
The Bather 116cm x 61cm (46" x 24") $289
For more oil painting art reproduction titles, please
contact Us.
|
