Lot Essay
La robe du soir was created by Magritte for the Belgian writer Jan-Albert Goris, who had served as a high-ranking civil servant and was also, under the pen name Marnix Gijsen, one of Belgium's most prolific twentieth-century authors. It was in 1955 that Goris had written to Magritte asking about the oil painting La robe du soir, painted earlier that year. Magritte confessed that he had already promised it to another collector, but that he would make a gouache, 'just as I usually do with each new picture' and offer it to Goris for a lower price (Magritte, quoted in D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., p. 331). This picture, then, provides a fascinating insight into the relationship between the author and the artist, and also into the habits, taste and personality of each.
Magritte had created the original La robe du soir around March of 1955. It was a variation on two other pictures, in which a bowler-hatted man was shown with a crescent moon above his head. Of course, in a sense there is little 'surreal' or impossible in La robe du soir: a naked woman looks out over a seascape, the moon in the sky above her head. Yet somehow, through that mysterious Magrittean alchemy, the two elements become more associated. Indeed, in this picture the woman appears to be Magritte's own vision of the huntress goddess Diana, so often shown with the crescent moon with which she is associated in her hair.
In a letter discussing the oil version, Magritte explained that it was his friend, the Belgian Surrealist poet Paul Colinet, who had thought of the title, 'which gave me a blue sensation' (Magritte, quoted in D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., Vol.III, p. 241). Certainly the picture, dominated by the sea and the night sky, is filled with that sensation of blue... It is a telling indication of the estimation in which Magritte himself held the image that he referred to the oil as, 'a masterpiece in preparation' (Magritte, quoted in ibid., p. 241).
Magritte had created the original La robe du soir around March of 1955. It was a variation on two other pictures, in which a bowler-hatted man was shown with a crescent moon above his head. Of course, in a sense there is little 'surreal' or impossible in La robe du soir: a naked woman looks out over a seascape, the moon in the sky above her head. Yet somehow, through that mysterious Magrittean alchemy, the two elements become more associated. Indeed, in this picture the woman appears to be Magritte's own vision of the huntress goddess Diana, so often shown with the crescent moon with which she is associated in her hair.
In a letter discussing the oil version, Magritte explained that it was his friend, the Belgian Surrealist poet Paul Colinet, who had thought of the title, 'which gave me a blue sensation' (Magritte, quoted in D. Sylvester (ed.), op. cit., Vol.III, p. 241). Certainly the picture, dominated by the sea and the night sky, is filled with that sensation of blue... It is a telling indication of the estimation in which Magritte himself held the image that he referred to the oil as, 'a masterpiece in preparation' (Magritte, quoted in ibid., p. 241).