Willy van Hove, Belgium

Acquired from the💧 above through Galerie Isy Brachot on December 18, 1967 and thence by descent

Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Magritte: Cent cinquante oeuvres; Première vue mondiale de ses sculptures, 1968, no. 145

Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art & Kyoto, Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art, Rétrospective René Magritte, 1971, no. 86, illustrated in the catalogue

Lausanne, Fondation de l'Hermitage, René Magritte, 1♋987, no. 61, illustrated in color in the catalogue

Munich, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, René Magritte, 1987-19ܫ88, no. 64, illustr🏅ated in color in the catalogue

 

 

"Numéro René Magritte," L'Art Belge, Brussels, January 1968, illustrated p. 79

Jacques Meuris, Magritte, Paris, 1988, illustrated p. 6

David Sylvester, Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. IV, London, 1994, no. 1292, illustrated p. 1🌸20

This work is in very good condition. Executed on card laid down on board. The card is in good condition with no tears or losses. There are a few tiny pigment losses at the extreme corners and in a few isolated spots in the figure's hair. A few isolated spots of foxing near the center and lower left of the composition. Otherwise fine, colors are bright and fresh.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Le Viol presents one of the most visually arresting images from Magritte's oeuvre. Brilliantly evocative of the artist's concept of 'elective affinities,' this image conflates anatomical realities into an erotically-charged provocation. One of the earliest iterations of this image, which Magritte painted in 1934, created scandal when it was first exhibited in Brussels. André Breton was instantly taken with the image, displaying it on the cover of Qu'est-ce que le Surréalisme in 1934 (fig. 1).

Sarah Whitfield describes the potency of this image and its continued significance, "When this work was first shown in an exhibition in Brussels organised by the Paris review Minotaure in May 1934, it was hung in a separate room and hidden behind a velvet curtain along with other provocative works (including Dalí's The great masturbator). More than fifty years later its capacity to shock, or at least to astonish, does not lie simply in the powerful sexuality of the image -- 'one of the most beautiful images of carnivorous love in the service of passion' according to Pol Bury -- but in the way Magritte delivers such an image with all the stylish wit and breezy confidence of, say, one of the cigarette advertisements he was designing around the same time... His aim, he told Breton, was to discover the property that belonged indissolubly to an object but which seemed strange and monstrous when that connection was revealed" (S. Whitfield, Magritte (exhibition catalogue), Haywa𝐆rd Gallery, London, 1992-93, n.p.).