.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
"The pictorial experience confirms my faith in the unknown possibilities of life. All these unknown things which are coming to light convince me that our happiness too depends on an enigma inseparable from man and that our only duty is to try to grasp this enigma." ('La Ligne de Vie' reproduced in, Exh. cat., René Magritte 1898-1967, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Belgium, Brussels 1998, p. 48)
In L'éclat du jour, two of Magritte's most common motifs, the apple and the bell meet on a window-sill engendering that familiar sense of enigma and mystery that pierces our conventional sense of what reality is and so magically permeates all of Magritte's art. In front of a mountain landscape bathed in sunlight, the apple has grown a face and, as a result, the crack in the bell takes on the appearance of a somewhat sinister and enigmatic smile. Two inanimate objects are fused with poetry and life through a dramatic encounter that is reminiscent of Lautréamont's famous phrase: "As beautiful as an umbrella and a sewing machine lying together on a dissecting table."
In L'éclat du jour, two of Magritte's most common motifs, the apple and the bell meet on a window-sill engendering that familiar sense of enigma and mystery that pierces our conventional sense of what reality is and so magically permeates all of Magritte's art. In front of a mountain landscape bathed in sunlight, the apple has grown a face and, as a result, the crack in the bell takes on the appearance of a somewhat sinister and enigmatic smile. Two inanimate objects are fused with poetry and life through a dramatic encounter that is reminiscent of Lautréamont's famous phrase: "As beautiful as an umbrella and a sewing machine lying together on a dissecting table."