盧．科辛，布魯塞爾（1964年購入）
羅伯特．德克音，布魯塞爾
沃爾卡特畫廊，布魯塞爾（1971年購自上述人士）
亞歷克斯．瑪吉（愛麗舍畫廊)），巴黎
水平畫廊，紐約（1972年購自上述人士）
芬妮．馬古烈．羅斯納克，紐約 (遺產賣出：紐約蘇富比，1997年11月13日，拍品編號388)
現有藏家購自上述拍賣會

「超現實主義」，布魯塞爾，德拉博埃蒂畫廊，1945-46年，品號73
「勒內．馬格利特」，韋爾維耶，韋爾維耶皇家美術協會，1947年，品號15
「勒內．馬格利特回顧展」，布魯塞爾，美術館和巴黎，龐畢度中心-國立現代美術館，1978-79年，品號131，圖錄附圖版

馬格利特致馬賽爾．馬里安函件，1944年4月 (轉載於勒內．馬格利特，「給馬賽爾．馬里安的信（1937-1962年）」，布魯塞爾，1977年，品號83
馬格利特致馬里安函件，約1944年，從未出版
保羅．羅傑（「查爾斯．波德萊爾-羅傑」），「忠貞不渝的愛情」，《大地是沒有淚水的山谷》，布魯塞爾，1945年，圖版頁2
勒內．馬格利特、馬賽爾．馬里安和保羅．羅傑，《十幅馬格利特早期繪畫》，布魯塞爾，1946年，圖版3
《視野：比利時超現實主義》，紐約，1946年12月，圖版頁18
維爾日弗斯，「快樂黨」，《既成事實》，布魯塞爾，1973年10月，品號99 （原文寫於1947年）
安立奎．果梅斯-科雷亞，《勒內．馬格利特的幽靈》，聖地亞哥，1948年，圖版頁25
大衛．席維司特、莎拉．惠特菲爾德和麥克．雷朋，《勒內．馬格利特，專題目錄，1931-1948年》，第2冊，倫敦，1993年，品號553，圖版頁331

This work is in excellent condition. Original canvas. Surface shows a rich and textured impasto. Under UV light there are blue pigments in the sky that fluoresce but that are original to the composition.
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.

Painted in 1944, the present work was completed after Magritte had already established himself as a successful member of the Surrealists in Paris. La Vie heureuse was painted during Magritte's self-proclaimed "sunlit period" which emerged in an effort to overcome the despair of the ongoing war. Inspired by Renoir's late paintings of voluptuous female nudes depicted in luꦬsh, idyllic landscapes, M♎agritte used a more luminous palette during this period, as evidenced by the present work. Magritte wrote in 1955:

"For the period I call 'Surrealism in full sunlight,' I am trying to join together two mutually exclusive things: 1) a feeling of levity, intoxication, happiness, which depends on a certain mood and on an atmosphere that certain Impressionists - or rather, Impressionism in general - have managed to render in painting. Without Impressionism, I do not believe we would know this feeling of real objects perceived through colors and nuances, and free of all classical reminiscences... and, 2) a feeling of the mysterious quality of objects..." (letter to G. Puel, as cited in Harry Torczyner, René Magritte, Ideas and Images, Paris, 1977, p. 186).

The artist described La Vie heureuse as follows: "La femme sommeille comme un fruit dans l'arbre ensoleillé" / "the woman is dozing like a fruit in the sunlit tree" (René Magritte, Marcel Mariën, and Paul Nougé, op. cit., Brussels, 1946, pl. 3 description). This work suggests an equivalence between the beauty of a peaceful, sleeping woman and ▨the warmth of a sunlit piece of fruit ripening on a🌞 branch.

A variant of the image is mentioned in an undated letter to Marcel Mariën as "Belle découverte en peinture" \ "A fine discovery in painting," with an enclosed sketch depicting the same symbol of a woman in sphere-like shape, this time hovering as a celestial body in the sky. In a letter from 1944, Magritte describes to Mariën his plans for a book to be published with illustrations of three of his works corresponding to poetry by his friend Paul Nougé. In the collection of Surrealist writings, "La Terre n'est pas une vallée de larmes" (Marcel Mariën, ed., op. cit., Brussels, 1945, p. 2-3), the present work is illustrated alongside the second verse of Nougé's poem, one of his reworkings of Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal. The other two works are of a female nude with a fish's tail sleeping on a couch (L'univers interdit) and a landscape with the intertwined forms of birds and leaves (La clairière). All three reference a sense of rem🐻oval from reality into a tranquil, dream-like atmosphere.