A painting by ‘master of Surrealism’ René Magritte sold for a staggering $121 million at a Christie’s auction in New York on Tuesday, breaking the auction record for any of his works.
The art piece titled ‘L’Empire des Lumières’ or ‘The Empire of Light’ brilliantly blends night and day. While Magritte paints the sky above as a bright, sunny, spring-summer day, he paints a grim, damp, enigmatic, almost-eerie street scene covered in darkness and shadow; What appears to be a traditional English manor, with a lone street lamp and its reflection in a puddle of water left after a recent drizzle.
The longer and closer one looks at the painting, the more one is drawn to its surreal nature – the artist’s intricate play with light and the mysterious darkness that surrounds the manor.
Photo courtesy: christies.com
The auction house – Christie’s – called the artwork the “crown jewel” of its previous owner – the late American interior designer Micah Ertegun. It also said the 1954 oil-on-canvas painting sold for $121,160,000 – “setting a new world record for the artist and for a work of Surrealist art at any auction”.
The piece of art – one of the largest paintings of 27 works, titled ‘L’Empire des Lumières’ – is renowned among 20th-century art experts for its scale, condition and minute details. The auction house said the winning bid far exceeded the painting’s $95 million estimate.
Some of the other paintings auctioned included two other works by Magritte, “La Cour d’Amour” and “La Mémoire”, which sold for $10.53 million and $3.68 million, respectively. The auction also featured works by renowned artists Ed Ruscha and Max Ernst. Another big bid – more than $19 million – was placed for a painting by 87-year-old British artist David Hockney, ‘A Still Life’.
According to Christie’s, René Magritte (1898-1967) explored nocturnal landscapes bathed in daylight in 17 unique paintings throughout his career. A 1954 example from the collection of Mrs. Ertegun shows the artist’s technical mastery and tendency to make the familiar supernatural. It is considered Magritte’s finest work in the series and the first time he introduced a body of water into a mystical street scene.
