The Sale of Magritte's Empire of Light Painting More than Doubled the Artist's Record

Soon after arriving in Paris in the late 1920s, the Belgian emerging painter René Magritte became affiliated with the Surrealist group led by Andre Breton. In 1932, he joined the Communist Party, and at the beginning of WWII, the artist departed from the Surrealists. For a while, Magritte painted in Fauve style until returning to the prewar style that eventually made him one of the most intriguing figures of modern art.

This groundbreaking painter, widely celebrated for his imagery centered on bowler-hatted men, green apples, and clouds, made a number of exceptional oil paintings. One of them is Rene Magritte's The Empire of Light or L’empire des lumières. This particular motif was explored by the artist in 27 paintings between the 1940s and 1960s, and now one of these canvases, made in 1961, was sold for $79.7 million at an auction at Sotheby's in March 2022, way above its estimate and more than doubling the artist's record in an auction.

By now the best-selling Magritte work was Le Principe du Plaisir (1937), a portrait of the Surrealist patron Edward James that was sold for $26.8 million at Sotheby’s New York franchise in 2018. According to the dealer Emmanuel Di Donna, some of his works were sold privately for more, however, that remained unclear for the public eye. Therefore, with an estimate of $60 million, the auction of The Empire of Light exceeded the expectation of doubling the artist's record. 

The Iconic Magritte Painting

All paintings in The Empire of Light series feature a nocturnal landscape beneath a sunlit sky. René Magritte did not plan them as a formal series; they have never been shown together and are rarely exhibited in a smaller group. He was inspired by the works of an English painter John Atkinson Grimshaw from the Victorian era, as well as by the landscapes of the great German romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich. The original French title is sometimes translated as The Dominion of Light.

Magritte produced the first work on the subject matter in 1948, and with each following version, the artist reimagined the composition. The series soon gained popularity among the public and collectors. The first version was purchased by Nelson Rockefeller and other versions are now held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, The Menil Collection in Houston, and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels.

The atmosphere of the composition, characterized by the stark contrast between the two seemingly opposing elements combined together to create a false reality, is typical of Magritte’s puzzling Surrealist imagery. The Empire of Light has an important place in the artist’s oeuvre, yet it gained wider fame after it served as an inspiration for a scene in the 1973 Golden Globe-winning classic The Exorcist.

The Commission

The 1961 painting was commissioned by Baroness Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet, the daughter of Magritte’s patron and the Surrealist collector Pierre Crowet. The two met when she was 16 years old and he was asked to paint her portrait. Anne-Marie embodied Magritte’s aesthetic ideal, and her likeness is present in several works produced before their first meeting. In the years to come, she became a lifelong friend of Magritte and his wife Georgette. The artist used to send her little drawings and show her his latest paintings, even producing one for her amid the birth of her daughter. Ane-Marie remained the artist’s muse as seen on some of his most significant paintings. She used to play chess with Magritte at his favorite bar and spend evenings with the family watching Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton movies.

Together with her husband, Anne-Marie Gillion Crowet is a notable figure in Belgium’s art scene since their Art Nouveau collection has been donated to the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, where it occupies an entire floor.

The Dominion of Light in Auction

By now this painting was exhibited worldwide, and between 2009 and 2020, it was on loan at the Musée Magritte in Brussels, where it was surrounded by the finest collection of Magritte paintings in the world. Prior to the sale the Chairman of Sotheby's Europe and Worldwide Head of Impressionist & Modern Art, Helena Newman, underlined that "a masterpiece of 20th-century art, L’empire des lumières brings together the two most fundamental elements of daily life – those of day and night – onto one paradoxical canvas." She added:                    

With its impressive scale, the cinematic painting draws the viewer into Magritte’s timeless world. Its immediacy and power encapsulate the ‘star quality that places Magritte firmly among the pantheon of the market’s most sought-after artists. We could not be more thrilled to start the new year by presenting this show-stopping work in London, where it represents a new benchmark both for the artist and the global art market.

The largest paintings in the series, was first revealed at Sotheby's Los Angeles franchise, and then shown in New York from January 22nd to 27th and Hong Kong from February 8th to 9th before arriving in London from February 22nd to March 2nd where it was sold.

Featured image: René Magritte - L’empire des lumières, 1961. Courtesy of Sotheby's.