René Magritte (1898-1967), Les signes du soir

René Magritte (1898-1967)
Les signes du soir
signed 'Magritte' (lower left); signed and inscribed 'Magritte "Les signes du soir"' (on the stretcher)
oil on canvas
29 1/2 x 25 1/2 in. (75 x 64.7 cm.)
Painted in 1926

Special Notice
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Provenance
Galerie l'Epoque, Brussels.
Edouard Léon Théodore Mesens, Brussels, by whom acquired from the above on 22 February 1929.
Claude Spaak, Brussels & Paris, a gift from the above, by 1933 until at least 1977.
Galerie Brusberg, Hannover.
Acquired from the above by the present owner in 1978.

Pre-Lot Text
ABSTRACTION BEYOND BORDERS: WORKS FROM A DISTINGUISHED PRIVATE EUROPEAN COLLECTION
From Paris to Munich, Berlin, Milan and Hanover, in the opening decades of the Twentieth Century, a number of artists created art that radically differed from those of their predecessors. Working across Europe, these pioneering provocateurs, radicals and trailblazers – Georges Braque, Francis Picabia, František Kupka, to name just a few – shunned the last vestiges of illusionism to instead create unprecedented works with no visible, recognisable or definable subject matter. Liberating colour, line and form from their centuries-old descriptive role, they overturned pictorial tradition, embarking on an abstract adventure that would come to define art of the Twentieth Century. Crossing geographical boundaries, encompassing a variety of media, and often blurring traditional distinctions of painting and sculpture, abstraction spread with an extraordinary speed, transforming artistic practice forever.
From the initial steps towards a new artistic language, to the paradigmatic embodiment of this concept, this diverse group of works embodies this varied, experimental and groundbreaking path of abstraction, demonstrating the variety of ways that artists across the globe embraced this radical practice. Braque’s cubist composition, Cartes et cornet à dés presents the origin of this move towards a new, non-representational artistic language. Along with Picasso – the pair, ‘like mountain-climbers roped together’, as Braque recalled of this frenzied period of seismic innovation – the artist undermined conventional notions of perspective, opening the door to a whole new way of depicting the world.
As rebellious as the cubists’ rejection of the centuries-old rules of representation, Picabia’s playful collage Sans titre (Pot de fleurs) uses the very materials of art making to parody the mimetic traditions of art, creating a semi-abstract play of colour and line. Far removed from any trace of the recognisable world, Kurt Schwitters’ rare Merz relief, Das Richard-Freitag-Bild dates from the height of his involvement with the International Constructivist movement. It was executed during a period when he was codifying Merz – the one-man art movement that he created in 1919 – into a utopian Constructivist language of form, taking the deconstruction of Dada and combining it with the aims of Constructivism. Following the same aesthetic, Georges Vantongerloo’s perfectly composed De Stijl composition embodies the tenets of geometric abstraction. In addition, Kupka, one of the leading pioneers of non-representational abstraction, is represented in this collection with a rare composition entitled Series C, III, Elevation, a work that marries his elegant abstract idiom with the deeper, spiritual dimension that was often the source of his abstractions.
By contrast, Magritte, an artist whose unique form of Surrealism serves as the very antithesis to the development of non-representational abstraction, is represented in this group with an important early painting, Les signes du soir. A pictorial trompe l’oeil riddle, with this painting Magritte confuses, undermines and questions the entire nature of representational painting, paving the way for the conceptual art that dominated artistic production of the post-war era.
From the purely formal – Schwitters and Vantongerloo – to the spiritual, mystic or surreal – Kupka, Jawlensky, Magritte and Picasso, this collection, assembled with the eye of an aesthete, encapsulates the multi-faceted nature and pioneering spirit of modernist abstraction throughout the Twentieth Century. Their curiosity, daring eclecticism and pioneering spirit of exploration nearly 100 years ago paved the way for artists and collectors today.

Literature
P.-G. Van Hecke, 'René Magritte, peintre de la pensée abstraite', in Sélection, March 1927, p. 453 (illustrated).
P. Waldberg, René Magritte, Brussels, 1965, p. 341 (illustrated p. 80).
P. Roberts-Jones, 'Les poèmes visibles de René Magritte', in Bulletin des Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, no. 1 & 2, Brussels, 1968, no. 19, p. 76 (illustrated).
J. Vovelle, Le Surréalisme en Belgique, Brussels, 1972 no. 189, p. 158 (illustrated).
H. Torczyner, Magritte: Ideas and Images, New York, 1977, no. 135, p. 267 (illustrated p. 93).
R. Calvocoressi, Magritte, Oxford, 1984, no. 5, n.p. & p. 29 (illustrated n.p.).
D. Sylvester, ed., René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, vol. I, Oil Paintings, 1916-1930, London, 1992, no. 100, p. 182 (illustrated).
S. Levy, Decoding Magritte, Bristol, 2015, p. 59 (illustrated p. 58).

Exhibited
Brussels, Galerie Le Centaure, Exposition Magritte, April - May 1927, no. 13, n.p.
Brussels, Galerie Georges Giroux, Exposition de quelques artistes wallons, March - April 1931, no. 84, n.p.
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Guiette, Magritte, Picard, December 1931 - January 1932, no. 26, n.p.
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, René Magritte, May - June 1933, no. 7, n.p.
New York, Julien Levy Gallery, Exhibition Surrealist, Rene Magritte, January 1936, no. 12, n.p..
Paris, Galerie Beaux-Arts, Exposition Internationale du Surréalisme, January - February 1938, no. 104.
Knokke, Casino Communal, Veme Festival Belge d'Été, Expositions René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, August 1952, no. 2, n.p.
Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, dertien belgische schilders, October - November 1952, no. 62, n.p. (titled 'de tekens van den avond').
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, René Magritte, May - June 1954, no. 2, p. 21 (illustrated).
Venice, XXVIIeme Biennale de Venise, Le fantastique dans l'art Belge, de Bosch à Magritte, June 1954, p. 62, n.p.
Bordeaux, Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Bosch, Goya et le fantastique, May - July 1957, no. 313, p. 111.
Knokke, Casino Communal, XVeme Festival Belge d'Été, L'oeuvre de René Magritte, July - August 1962, no. 9, p. 43 (illustrated n.p.).
London, Tate Gallery, Magritte, February - April 1969, no. 1 (illustrated p. 46); this exhibition later travelled to Hanover, Kestner-Gesellschaft, René Magritte, May - June 1969, no. 4, p. 71 (illustrated p. 84); and Zurich, Kunsthaus, June - July 1969.
Bourges, Maison de la Culture, magritte, delvaux, gnoli, le choix d'un amateur, June - October 1972, no. 1 (illustrated n.p.).
Paris, Galerie Arts/Contacts, La Collection Claude Spaak, October - November 1972, no. 1, n.p. (illustrated n.p.).
London, Marlborough Fine Art, Magritte: Retrospective Loan Exhibition, October - November 1973, no. 3, p. 34 (illustrated p. 53).
New York, The New York Cultural Centre, Painters of the Mind's Eye: Belgian Symbolists and Surrealists, January - March 1974, no. 91, p. 120 (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Houston, Museum of Fine Arts, April - May 1974.
Bordeaux, Centre d'Arts Plastiques Contemporains de Bordeaux, Magritte, May - July 1977, p. 9.
Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Rétrospective Magritte, October - December 1978, no. 20, n.p. (illustrated); this exhibition later travelled to Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, January - April 1979.