Executed in 1952, the present gouache is one of the very first iterations of the piano and ring motif which Magritte "discovered" in the spring of 1952. Joining these two tangentially related images (see fig. 1), La Main heureuse is a striking embodiment of Magritte’s notion of "elective affinities", a theory which defined much of the artist's mature oeuvre.
As Sarah Whitfield writes, ”Magritte’s earlier practice had been based on the poetic device practised by the Surrealists of provoking chance encounters between unrelated objects. The revelation that the encounter between two related objects could create an equally intense poetic shock led him to try and pinpoint the mysterious way in which objects relate to one another, to seek out what he called their ‘elective affinities’” (Exh. Cat., London, The Hayward Gallery, Magritte, 1992).
“The last problem I dealt with was that of the piano. The solution taught.mes that the secret object destined to be united with the piano was an engagement ring. The picture La Main heureuse therefore shows a black grand piano the end of which passes through the ring like a beam of happiness and more especially the happiness of the fingers of a hand which is playing the piano. At the same t.mes , since the ring is partly hidden by the piano running through it, its appearance suggests the shape of a musical sign, the bass clef.... It should be noted that the feature of this kind of image is that it doesn't suggest, as happens in some cases, the idea that one thing is like another thing: a woman is like a flower, like a pearl, like a cloud etc. but asserts that one thing is the other thing: A door is a hole. A tree is a leaf. A piano is a hand (or a finger). In this last case there is an additional pleasure caused by the thought that a hand is a finger, and by the ring which evokes that true luxury that Baudelaire somet.mes s makes us long for.”
It was in 1952 that Magritte first solved “the problem” of the piano with a suite of three gouaches, each featuring the instrument encircled by a ring. The reflection of the gold band against the dark grand piano distorts the view of the ring, altering the silhouette just enough to echo the form of a bass clef.
Fig. 2 René Magritte, La Main heureuse, 1953, oil on canvas
The title, chosen after the creation of the motif, alludes to the unseen liaison between the piano and ring—the hand which animates both. A fourth gouache on the same motif was later commissioned for a diamond dealer in 1955, two years after Magritte created a larger version in oil (see fig. 2).
In much the same way that literature influenced the titles of Magritte's artwork, so too did music. From his earliest collages incorporating sheet music (see fig. 4), to his later paintings featuring instruments, Magritte’s imagery emphasizes the throughline of music in his work and the interdisciplinary nature of cultural influences in Surrealism. Similar referents and uncanny juxtapositions can be found in the work of Parisian Surrealists like Salvador Dalí (see fig. 3).
The reimagining of a motif across varied media was a common occurence in Magritte'e oeuvre, with some of his most iconic images appearing in both gouache and oil in short succession. The famed themes like Magritte's bowler-hatted men, or his L'Empire des lumières, would, like La Main heureuse, be realized and subtly reworked in successive compositions in the 1950s and 60s (see slideshow).
Of the three related goauches of La Main heurese executed in 1952, the present example is the richest in coloration and detail. The present work comes to auction for the first t.mes in more than thirty-five years.