Le prince charmant

Executed in 1948, Le prince charmant was subsequently exhibited during the same year alongside a text co-written by the artist himself which was almost identical to that published in Magritte's own 1948 publication Titres, quoted above (in the other text, it was the eye, rather than the bird, that was 'princely'). Le prince charmant has subsequently featured in many other exhibitions. The title, meanwhile, is one that this work shared with another, an oil also dating from 1948, painted in the deliberately Fauve style with bold yellows and reds and vigorous brushstrokes showing a bird with a headscarf. There, the head of the bird is also crowned with a miniature fairytale castle. In the present gouache, by contrast, the picture shows the rooted leaf-birds as the subjects of this imperious, blue-cloaked figure. The main protagonist, who has been able to charm the others, is a pure bird, it appears - albeit anthropomorphic. By contrast, in the case of the leaf-birds, flight, that defining ability of (most) avian species, appears impossible: these organisms, half vegetal and half bird, have grown up from the terrain over which they are casting their own surveying glances. At the same time, the composition echoes images of the Holy Family, of the pictures of the narrative surrounding the birth of Christ and the Flight into Egypt with the family group clustered in a barren wilderness and the main protagonist draped in lapis-coloured cloth. In this way, Magritte has managed to take a variety of elements from the visual world that surrounds us and to transform them, creating the fascinating juxtapositions that demand that we see supposed reality from a fresh perspective and open our minds to the poetic beauty inherent in all things.