Lot Essay
Painted in 1928, L'oeil de la montagne dates from the early years of Magritte's involvement with the Surrealists. During this time, he was living with his wife Georgette in Paris, and was often involved with André Breton and his circle, having been welcomed by them some time earlier. Despite the fact that he had been painting in a Surreal manner for only a few years, the immediacy of his striking visions such as L'oeil de la montagne had made a great impact on his contemporaries.
In several of Magritte's earlier oils, a fusion can be detected of a range of source ideas, references and influences. In its organic form, the strange, dark, eclipse-like sun in this painting recalls both the creatures in some of thee early paintings of Max Ernst, one of Magritte's great touchstones, and of the pictures of Joan Miró. Magritte's friend, the writer and art dealer Camille Goemans, had spent some of 1927 living in Ernst's Paris studio in his absence, and later secured more permanent accommodation there; Miró had his own studio in the same building. Another artist who seems to be obliquely referenced in L'oeil de la montagne is Vincent van Gogh: this hovering entity appears as some dark reincarnation of his celebrated sunflowers. This range of references has been mingled in order to bring out a purely idiosyncratic, signature vision of the artist. This inverted sun, a black hole lurking above its rocky landscape, is perhaps some mysterious portal; Magritte has deliberately painted it in what appears to be a different style, throwing the entire nature of representation into question. It is a tribute to the importance of L'oeil de la montagne that it was formerly in the collection of Magritte's friend, supporter and fellow Belgian Surrealist, E.L.T. Mesens.
In several of Magritte's earlier oils, a fusion can be detected of a range of source ideas, references and influences. In its organic form, the strange, dark, eclipse-like sun in this painting recalls both the creatures in some of thee early paintings of Max Ernst, one of Magritte's great touchstones, and of the pictures of Joan Miró. Magritte's friend, the writer and art dealer Camille Goemans, had spent some of 1927 living in Ernst's Paris studio in his absence, and later secured more permanent accommodation there; Miró had his own studio in the same building. Another artist who seems to be obliquely referenced in L'oeil de la montagne is Vincent van Gogh: this hovering entity appears as some dark reincarnation of his celebrated sunflowers. This range of references has been mingled in order to bring out a purely idiosyncratic, signature vision of the artist. This inverted sun, a black hole lurking above its rocky landscape, is perhaps some mysterious portal; Magritte has deliberately painted it in what appears to be a different style, throwing the entire nature of representation into question. It is a tribute to the importance of L'oeil de la montagne that it was formerly in the collection of Magritte's friend, supporter and fellow Belgian Surrealist, E.L.T. Mesens.