One of the most enigmatic modern artists, who painted to evoke an essential mystery and thought among the viewers is René Magritte. Being an artist who paired unexpected objects to combine the commonplace with the fantastic imagination and be the master of “magic realism,” Magritte has painted some of the fine cloud-filled skies, bowler-hated men, and oversized household objects. As much as Magritte was excellent in painting, he never became part of the $100 Million Club, which recently changed when his painting, “The Empire of Light” was auctioned by Christie’s for more than $121 million on November 19, 2024.
As one of the largest paintings of the 27 works all titled “L’empire des lumières” (“The Empire of Light”), the composition portrays a dark streetscape with a slight illuminance. The 1954 canvas is well known for its scale, pristine condition, and subtle details. Max Carter, Vice Chairman of 20th and 21st Century art at Christie’s describes it as,
“An icon of Surrealism, the Ertegun Magritte is arguably the finest, most deftly rendered and hauntingly beautiful of the series.”
He further adds,
“Like Mica’s eye, it is perfect.”
The composition portrays a sense of mystery, focusing on the juxtaposition of a landscape that has deep shadows and darkness hovering around with a day-lit sky above, an impossible collision that became one of his most celebrated and iconic subjects. The darkness in the composition is eerie and disturbing yet the blue sky doesn’t seem capable to console the viewer through its brightness. With a deceptively simple subject, this painting has a rich poetic potential. As Magritte explained,
“For me, it’s not a matter of painting ‘reality’ as though it were readily accessible to me and to others, but of depicting the most ordinary reality in such a way that this immediate reality loses its tame or terrifying character and presents itself with mystery” (quoted in H. Torczyner, Magritte: Ideas and Images, New York, 1977, p. 203).
The L’empire des lumières offers an elegant and unique form of Surrealism that has an unexpected contradiction, which was never explored in the artistic world.
A little provenance of the painting goes back to the spring of 1937 when Magritte stayed with the collector Edward James in London and he gave a presentation at Roland Penrose’s London Gallery in which he discussed
“certain features peculiar to words, images, and real objects.”
Following this discussion, the artist cited an opening line of André Breton’s poem L’Aigrette (from Terre de Clair, 1923),
“If only the sun would shine tonight” (ibid.).
The following year, he created a gouache, Le Poison where he painted a row of buildings in the night sky of the constellation of stars and a delicate crescent moon, transforming a simple and decent streetscape into the otherworldy vision of the cosmos. In this way, the painting Le Poison came into existence, and with each new canvas in the series, he used different translations and juxtapositions of the sky as a recurring character in his work to question the viewer’s understanding of its properties.
This sky was once again an essential tool in the artist’s paintings in the L’empire des lumières paintings. When he adopted a subtle representation of day and night on the same canvas, it gave an unsettling and quiet strangeness. The first work in this series shows an eerily shuttered house with a single lamp post and some windows faintly lit from within to give an illuminance in the dark night. Above, the sky showed a pale blue expanse with white clouds portraying broad daylight. This unusual and impossible scenario forces the viewer to examine and question their expectations. “After I had painted L’empire des lumières,” the artist explained in 1966,
“I got the idea that night and day exist together, that they are one. This is reasonable, or at the very least it’s in keeping with our knowledge: in the world night always exists at the same time as day. (Just as sadness always exists in some people at the same time as happiness in others). But such ideas are not poetic. What is poetic is the visible image of the picture” (quoted in S. Whitfield, Magritte, exh. cat., The Hayward Gallery, London, 1992, no. 111).
A significant milestone in the global art market has been reached with the sale of the painting, which smashed the estimates.
“When icons appear on the market, they create their own market dynamic,” – Carter
Two other artworks of the artist that were included in this auction were “La cour d’amour,” and “La Mémoire,” which sold for $10.53 million and $3.68 million, respectively. The painting’s auction soon fetched the limelight as Christie’s sales were down by 22% the same time last year and this year it proved the fact that the show must go on. According to Art Basel and UBS’s 2024 Survey of Global Collecting, Christie’s saw some uplifts in 2024 including in its sale of Asian art and online sales, recording a 3% year-on-year increase in global share of bids since 2023. Not only is the painting’s auction a remarkable achievement for the Surrealist movement, but a representation of Christie’s remarkable effort to sell artwork at a huge price amid the global art market slump.
Featured Image: L’empire des Lumières (1954) by Rene Magritte; Christie’s.
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