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Lot Essay
The Comité Magritte has confirmed the authenticity of this work.
Lettres persanes are preliminary drawings for the oil painted the same year, Un peu de l'âme des bandits. Magritte told André Bosmans in a letter of July 1960 that they are "the result of inspiration which occurred at the end of the research posed by the problem of the violin: As always, from the beginning of the research, the solution was contained in the first drawing (which included a 'knot'), I had to discover what it indicated: the white knot of a formal collar. This first image is 'good' and would be worth painting...even though it is not an answer to a problem" (quoted in D. Sylvester, S. Whitfield and M. Raeburn, René Magritte: Catalogue Raisonné, Oil Paintings, Objects and Bronzes, 1949-1967, London, 1993, vol. III, p. 322).
In these drawings, Magritte experiments with the resonances of different images in relation to the violin—as the body of a butterfly, the spine of a leaf, and the body of his character "The Healer," among others. Sylvester notes that the numbering of the sketches may have been an afterthought by the artist, in order to show the progression of the images which led to the discovery. According to Magritte, the title Un peu de l'âme des bandits was suggested by his friend Louis Scutenaire. It was originally the title of a book written in 1913 by Emile Michon about a gang of thieves known as the "Bande à Bonnot."
Lettres persanes are preliminary drawings for the oil painted the same year, Un peu de l'âme des bandits. Magritte told André Bosmans in a letter of July 1960 that they are "the result of inspiration which occurred at the end of the research posed by the problem of the violin: As always, from the beginning of the research, the solution was contained in the first drawing (which included a 'knot'), I had to discover what it indicated: the white knot of a formal collar. This first image is 'good' and would be worth painting...even though it is not an answer to a problem" (quoted in D. Sylvester, S. Whitfield and M. Raeburn, René Magritte: Catalogue Raisonné, Oil Paintings, Objects and Bronzes, 1949-1967, London, 1993, vol. III, p. 322).
In these drawings, Magritte experiments with the resonances of different images in relation to the violin—as the body of a butterfly, the spine of a leaf, and the body of his character "The Healer," among others. Sylvester notes that the numbering of the sketches may have been an afterthought by the artist, in order to show the progression of the images which led to the discovery. According to Magritte, the title Un peu de l'âme des bandits was suggested by his friend Louis Scutenaire. It was originally the title of a book written in 1913 by Emile Michon about a gang of thieves known as the "Bande à Bonnot."