Magritte classic "Dominion of Light", up for auction.
·
·
·
Rene Magritte's painting, 'L'Empire des Lumieres' (Dominion of Light) - showing a night-time street under a bright blue sky - will be auctioned in London next week and could bring in a record price. The painting, described by Sotheby's auction house as 'a masterpiece of 20th-century art', has an estimate of more than $60 million.
Magritte's painting is the main attraction of Sotheby's spring auction of' modern and contemporary art' which also features paintings by Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Picasso, David Hockney and others. Magritte's 1961 'Dominion of Light' is one of 17 similar oils and 10 other works depicting the scene that Magritte painted from the 1940s right up to to the 1960s. The one going to auction on March 2nd was painted for Anne-Marie Crowet, a friend of Magritte and the daughter the Belgian collector Pierre Crowet, who was also his patron. It has remained in the family ever since.
The painting depicts a shadowy street in Brussels, with the dark silhouettes of trees and a house with light glowing from its windows and a street lamp under a blue sky and white clouds.
It is regarded as one of Magritte's most famous images. In the same class as the famous 'Magritte Apple'. The juxtaposition of day and night at the same time is intriguing. It is surreal in the very real sense believe experts. The estimate of over 60 million dollars brings it within a record price for this artist. The image has also been borrowed by Hollywood such as in 1973 movie 'The Exorcist', as the movie's poster would attest. Investors will no doubt come running! Staff at Sotheby's truly have an enviable job!
Apart from the Magritte painting the auction includes five works by Monet, painted in the 1880s when his style was evolving and changing. They are thought to be likely to bring in an estimated $50 million. A sixth painting of water lilies produced in the 1910s is also up for grabs. The five works include a depiction of some chrysanthemums inspired by Japanese print maker Hokusai, the beach at Dieppe and a scene of ice floes on the River Seine. They appear to bridge the creative zone between his famous water lily series and what will later become abstraction!
