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Lot Essay
L’évidence éternelle: genoux was originally conceived as part of a five-piece work. It was executed in 1954, while the artist was preparing for an exhibition of his work to inaugurate his dealer, Alexander Iolas’ new gallery space in Milan. Magritte sent Iolas instructions for the presentation of this work, including the dimensions of five stretchers and diagrams of a sheet of glass and wooden base (fig. 1). He wrote to Iolas, “I have begun work on the 5 little pictures, they will soon be finished. (There will be a navel, and so it will be a slightly different variant of the one that you have)” (D. Sylvester, ed., op. cit., p. 231). Here Magritte refers to his 1930 prototype of the toile découpée, or cut-up canvas, as he then termed it (Sylvester no. 327; fig. 2). L’évidence éternelle exists between painting and sculpture, and Magritte referred to these works as objects, not paintings. By dividing the body of his model and wife, Georgette, into five self-contained sections, the artist paid tribute to and challenged the traditional female nude. L’évidence éternelle plays with perception, asking the viewer to mentally reconstruct a whole body from discreet parts.
At the time of the present work’s execution, relations between Magritte and Iolas were increasingly strained. Iolas was likely financially overextended, and had to abandon the gallery in Milan, which never opened. Furthermore, one of the checks he paid to Magritte bounced. He did not keep Magritte informed of the failed gallery opening, and the artist grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication: “It is five months since I had any news about our business affairs,” he wrote in a letter to Iolas (ibid., p. 56). In May, Iolas wrote to Magritte for an update on L’évidence éternelle, but thereafter there is no further mention of it in their correspondence. Only three of the five projected canvases—the head, breasts and knees—have been traced, and it is likely that the project was never completed.
Magritte kept the head for his personal collection, and it remained with him until his death. He gave away the breasts and knees to Suzi Gablik, an artist and writer who lived with Magritte and his wife for eight months while working on a book about the artist. She has recounted how she was in Magritte's store room attic with him one morning and saw the painting lying on a table. She marveled at it and Magritte asked her if she would like to have it. In her own words, “I felt a little electric shock go through me and said that I would. He then gave it to me.” Gablik later sold the breasts to Robert Rauschenberg. The knees stayed in her collection, and are now offered at auction for the first time.
At the time of the present work’s execution, relations between Magritte and Iolas were increasingly strained. Iolas was likely financially overextended, and had to abandon the gallery in Milan, which never opened. Furthermore, one of the checks he paid to Magritte bounced. He did not keep Magritte informed of the failed gallery opening, and the artist grew increasingly frustrated with the lack of communication: “It is five months since I had any news about our business affairs,” he wrote in a letter to Iolas (ibid., p. 56). In May, Iolas wrote to Magritte for an update on L’évidence éternelle, but thereafter there is no further mention of it in their correspondence. Only three of the five projected canvases—the head, breasts and knees—have been traced, and it is likely that the project was never completed.
Magritte kept the head for his personal collection, and it remained with him until his death. He gave away the breasts and knees to Suzi Gablik, an artist and writer who lived with Magritte and his wife for eight months while working on a book about the artist. She has recounted how she was in Magritte's store room attic with him one morning and saw the painting lying on a table. She marveled at it and Magritte asked her if she would like to have it. In her own words, “I felt a little electric shock go through me and said that I would. He then gave it to me.” Gablik later sold the breasts to Robert Rauschenberg. The knees stayed in her collection, and are now offered at auction for the first time.