Mysterious portrait discovered in Rene Magritte's painting

The painting La Cinquieme Saison by surrealist artist Rene Magritte. (Source: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)

A mysterious portrait of a woman, believed to be the wife of surrealist artist Rene Magritte, has been found during research into his works.

This is a valuable discovery about this Belgian painter about whom very little information is available.

This portrait had been hidden under another work for the past 80 years and was only discovered through modern techniques.

Specifically, experts were extremely excited to discover a portrait of a woman, hidden under another painting by artist Rene Magritte - "La Cinquieme Saison" (The Fifth Season), painted in 1943, currently kept at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (RMFAB) in Brussels (Belgium).

This discovery was made using infrared reflection techniques that allow one to "see" through layers of paint that are invisible to the naked eye.

The identity of the character in the portrait is quite similar to Magritte's wife Georgette, "muse".

Black and white image from X-ray. (Source: Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)

The black-and-white X-ray image looks remarkably similar to the 1934 "Magritte" painting of Georgette staring straight ahead with an unflinching gaze - the Georgette Magritte, now housed at the RMFAB.

Georgette and Magritte met in 1920, in an art supply store where she worked as a saleswoman and he frequented to buy paints. They married in 1922 and she was the subject of many of his works.

The surviving letters show that they had a beautiful love affair that lasted for decades (something that the famous singer Paul Simon praised in the song "Rene And Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War" composed by him in 1983).

She eventually became the sole custodian of his estate and maintained friendly relations with the Brussels museum.

When she died in 1986, she left seven paintings to RMFAB, including another portrait he painted of her in 1937.

Catherine Defeyt, senior researcher at the University of Liege, and Francisca Vandepitte, curator of modern art at RMFAB, are the curators of the new study on Magritte's paintings.

This study closely examined 50 Magritte paintings from 1921-1967 using chemical and light technology.

"We assume that Magritte painted this portrait, there is no doubt about this," researcher Defeyt said.

The discovery will be included in their upcoming book, titled "Rene Magritte: The Artist's Materials," to be published at the Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles this August.

In one passage, they note that the pale yellow in the lower layer, where it matches the woman's hair underneath, suggests that the figure in the portrait is blonde: "Similarly, the bright red of the lips can be observed in the upper layer, right in the middle of the work. Although Georgette has brown hair, the oval face, nose, and hairstyle of the model match her appearance."

The reason why the famous artist Magritte painted over the portrait of the woman remains a "mystery."

"While technical examinations of works have revealed a second image hidden beneath the surface of a painting on several occasions, we are always excited when we discover another instance. Here, the infrared reflectometry image is so clear and distinct that it increases the likelihood of identifying the sitter," said Dr Thomas Learner of the Getty Conservation Institute.

"We are delighted that Dr Defeyt and his colleagues have agreed to publish their work on Magritte in the Getty's Artist Materials series. We hope this discovery will spark further interest in the artist's materials and methods," he said.

VNA

Source: http://www.baovanhoa.vn/the-gioi/artmid/425/articleid/67499/phat-hien-chan-dung-bi-an-trong-tranh-cua-danh-hoa-rene-magritte