One of My Long Time Favorite Mid-Century Surrealists' Paintings (One in a Series, of 27)... Just Sold For A Record Sum, At Christie's, Yesterday...

The painting, by Magritte -- is. . . vastly famous (as is the artist), to be sure. [And that may in part explain the outsized sale price.] It is but one of 27 L'empire des lumières paintings, by the artist -- but aside from the brown bowler hat guy paintings, is likely his most well-known work.

The midday blue sky, with puffy clouds floating above a clearly late night street lamp lit scene, with puddles from an earlier rain. . . is both puzzling, and soothing -- in one. Here are the details [and please forgive me for stylizing the painting for this website's sensibilities -- but that also assures that no one will filch it -- and frame it. Hah!]

The deets, then:

. . .Though perhaps best known for his surrealist depictions of bowler hat-wearing men, Magritte spent a period of 15 years exploring the fleeting transition from day to night in landscape painting. He produced a total of 17 oil paintings and 10 gouaches (water-based paintings) that all share the name “L’empire des lumières” –– and each with small alternations between versions. . . .

The paradoxical paintings rose in demand, particularly when a large version created in 1954 was featured in the Belgian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and was sold to famed collector Peggy Guggenheim. Magritte went on to create three similarly large canvases — including the one that sold Tuesday — that same year so as not to disappoint other collectors.

When asked about the comparatively subtle surrealism of the “L’empire des Lumières” works, Sandra Zalman, an art history associate professor at the University of Houston, argued that the lamppost was an early iteration of the iconic bowler-hat man.

“The lamppost’s shadow alludes to the bowler-hatted man, hovering — or haunting — the space that would otherwise be considered a quiet, though eerie, landscape,” she said, in an email. . . .

There you have it -- and art like this. . . (and like. . . Banksy's and Monet's) will forever fire my imagination. I can't get enough of it. Onward, grinning into the bright sunshine -- even as temps plummet.

नमस्ते