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Lot Essay
Leaning against a stone, against a backdrop that is half-landscape, half-curtain, a naked woman stands, looking contemplatively aside. Nu debout is one of a string of paintings in which Magritte explored ways of depicting women in a revelatory manner. Sometimes, they would melt into the sky, as in La magie noire; in another related picture, L'aimant from 1941, an echo of the woman appeared in the curtain behind her.
In Nu debout, Magritte appears to have played with the myth of Pygmalion, one of the greatest tales of an artist. In that story, Pygmalion was the sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had created, which was then granted life. In Nu debout, Magritte plays with that concept: the woman appears almost as though she were a classical statue to which make-up has been applied. Her body has a distinctive coloration that evokes marbles and which is deliberately different to that of the face and hands, which appear more lively. The connection with statuary is heightened by the presence of the rough stone upon which she is resting her hand, which appears like a block of marble from which an artist could hew another work. When it was exhibited in 1974, Nu debout was given the title La séduction inattendue by Magritte's friend Louis Scutenaire, who had suggested a number of titles for works by the artist that were accepted during his lifetime. This title appears to play on the idea of a sculpture coming unexpectedly to life, a nude appearing before us.
Nu debout has been dated to 1942, during the Occupation of Belgium. Magritte was again living in his homeland having briefly fled to France at the beginning of the Second World War and then returned to his wife Georgette, whose features appear to grace the woman in this picture. At the beginning of the War, Magritte had been facing an artistic impasse; however, in 1941 he began to move forwards, telling Claude Spaak that. 'All my latest pictures are leading me toward the simplified painting that I have long wanted to achieve, it is in short the ever more rigorous search for what, in my view, is the essential element in art; purity and precision in the image of mystery which becomes decisive through being shorn of everything incidental or accidental' (Magritte, quoted in D. Sylvester & S. Whitfield, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Oil paintings and objects, 1931-1948, Antwerp, 1993, p. 288). Like L'aimant, which was painted during that period of revelation, Nu debout appears to date from this period during which Magritte managed to paint 'pictures in which "the bright side" of life would be the area to be exploited. By this I mean the whole traditional range of charming things, women, flowers, birds, trees, the atmosphere of happiness, etc. And if I have managed to bring fresh air into my painting, it is through the fairly powerful charm which is now substituted in my paintings for the disturbing poetry that I once struggled to achieve. Generally speaking, pleasure cancels out a whole series of worries that I want increasingly to disregard' (Magritte, quoted in ibid., pp. 290-91).
In Nu debout, Magritte appears to have played with the myth of Pygmalion, one of the greatest tales of an artist. In that story, Pygmalion was the sculptor who fell in love with a statue he had created, which was then granted life. In Nu debout, Magritte plays with that concept: the woman appears almost as though she were a classical statue to which make-up has been applied. Her body has a distinctive coloration that evokes marbles and which is deliberately different to that of the face and hands, which appear more lively. The connection with statuary is heightened by the presence of the rough stone upon which she is resting her hand, which appears like a block of marble from which an artist could hew another work. When it was exhibited in 1974, Nu debout was given the title La séduction inattendue by Magritte's friend Louis Scutenaire, who had suggested a number of titles for works by the artist that were accepted during his lifetime. This title appears to play on the idea of a sculpture coming unexpectedly to life, a nude appearing before us.
Nu debout has been dated to 1942, during the Occupation of Belgium. Magritte was again living in his homeland having briefly fled to France at the beginning of the Second World War and then returned to his wife Georgette, whose features appear to grace the woman in this picture. At the beginning of the War, Magritte had been facing an artistic impasse; however, in 1941 he began to move forwards, telling Claude Spaak that. 'All my latest pictures are leading me toward the simplified painting that I have long wanted to achieve, it is in short the ever more rigorous search for what, in my view, is the essential element in art; purity and precision in the image of mystery which becomes decisive through being shorn of everything incidental or accidental' (Magritte, quoted in D. Sylvester & S. Whitfield, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. II, Oil paintings and objects, 1931-1948, Antwerp, 1993, p. 288). Like L'aimant, which was painted during that period of revelation, Nu debout appears to date from this period during which Magritte managed to paint 'pictures in which "the bright side" of life would be the area to be exploited. By this I mean the whole traditional range of charming things, women, flowers, birds, trees, the atmosphere of happiness, etc. And if I have managed to bring fresh air into my painting, it is through the fairly powerful charm which is now substituted in my paintings for the disturbing poetry that I once struggled to achieve. Generally speaking, pleasure cancels out a whole series of worries that I want increasingly to disregard' (Magritte, quoted in ibid., pp. 290-91).