Ren Magritte (1898-1967)

Femme-bouteille

Details

Ren Magritte (1898-1967)
Femme-bouteille
signed 'Magritte' (on the back)
oil on glass bottle
11.7/8 x 2 in. (30.2 x 7 cm.)
Painted in the 1950s

Provenance

Acquired directly from the artist by Harry Torczyner in 1959.

Literature

Elle (Brussels), January 1960, p. 12 (illustrated).
S. Tillim, "Month in Review," Arts Magazine, December 1961, p. 45 (illustrated).
R.E. Krauss, "Denial of Possession," Terminal Iron Works--The Sculpture of David Smith, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1979, p. 121, fig. 96 (illustrated).
H. Torczyner, L'ami Magritte: correspondance et souvenirs, Antwerp, 1992, p. 41 (illustrated in color), p. 171.
H. van Nieuwenhove, "Le domaine enchant de Harry Torczyner," Style, no. 9, December 1992, p. 24 (illustrated in color).
D. Sylvester, S. Whitfield and M. Raeburn, Ren Magritte, Catalogue Raisonn, London, 1993, vol. III (Oil paintings, Objects and Bronzes 1949-1967), p. 452, no. 1075 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Dallas, Museum for Contemporary Arts, and Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, Ren Magritte in America, December 1960-March 1961, no. 81.
New York, Albert Landry Galleries, Ren Magritte in New York Private Collections, October-November 1961, no. 39.
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center, The Vision of Ren Magritte, September-October 1962, no. 61.
New York, The Museum of Modern Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Art Institute of Chicago, Dada, Surrealism and their Heritage, March-December 1968, p. 237, no. 181 (illustrated, p. 145).

Lot Essay

Magritte made as many as twenty-five bottle paintings, of which approximately ten depict nude women; however, none are dated and, given their fragility, it is not clear how many survive. It is believed that Magritte began to make bottle paintings in late 1940, using an image of a blonde woman who also appears in his easel paintings of the following year.

Edward James wrote to Magritte in 1941, telling him that his idea for bottle paintings was excellent and that they would find many buyers, especially in the United States. "You will sell alot at good prices. This is exactly New York taste and Hollywood's as well. People in New York were, at least before the war, more sophisticated than in London. I don't know why, but for the last 15 years there has been more taste for this sort of fantasy in New York."

Torczyner purchased the present work from Magritte in 1959, believing originally that it was not a recent work. Torczyner later dated the work 1959, and Sylvester also assigned it a date in the 1950s, a period when Magritte remade several of the earlier bottle paintings. Indeed, Torczyner's femme-bouteille resembles the first bottle painting from 1940.

The cover of the March 1972 issue of Playboy was based on Torczyner's femme-bouteille (fig. 1).

(fig. 1) Cover of Playboy, March 1972.

(fig. 2) Magritte, 1961. (Photo: Charles Leirens)