With its surreal arrangement of soft white clouds floating serenely over a tranquil landscape, Galatée takes as its subject matter one of the most iconic motifs within René Magritte’s oeuvre: that of a cloud-filled sky. In the present work, the landscape is leveled close to the lower edge of the canvas and Magritte depicts the smattering of houses and trees using a hazy sfumato technique to give the impression of perspective and to draw the viewer’s gaze towards the primary focus of the picture.This technique appears in an earlier comparable work by the artist entitled La bataille de l'argonne from 1959 (fig.1).

Although bearing the date 1952, Magritte painted Galatée in 1964. It was not uncommon for Magritte to intentionally mis-date his paintings when trying to sell them without the knowledge of his then-dealer Alexander Iolas. According to art historian and Magritte scholar Siegfried Gohr, the motif of white clouds first appeared in Celestial Perfections, a four-part work painted in 1930. From that point onwards, clouds became a central motif throughout the artist’s oeuvre, culminating in his L’empire des lumières series and continuing to pervade his paintings for the remainder of his artistic career. Magritte’s treatment of clouds in the present work and throughout his oeuvre is evocative of Flemish and Dutch landscapes and later cloud studies (figs. 2 & 3). The wide flat landscapes of Belgium with the large open skies created the perfect scenery to inspire the artist.

As with many of the artist’s works, Magritte gave the present picture a title that is suitably cryptic. Galatée recalls the ivory statue Galatea carved by Pygmalion that came to life in Greek mythology. Just as the statue came to life in the myth, here the clouds begin their own surreal transformation, morphing into shapes that feel almost recognisable and yet just beyond comprehension. In their refusal to be wholly identifiable, the clouds conjure imagery of a childlike past.mes spent making shapes from clouds, whilst also bearing the slight hint of menace that is so often present in Magritte’s compositions. The clouds are at once light and playful and yet unknowable and threatening. Much of Magritte’s fascination with the sky stemmed from his belief that it acted as a veil, commenting to one reporter that: 'the sky is a form of curtain because it hides something from us. We are surrounded by curtains' (quoted in Sarah Whitfield, Magritte (exhibition catalogue), Hayward Gallery, London, 1992, note to no. 120). What first appears benign, in the sight of a pale blue sky with drifting clouds, quickly alerts us to the multitude of ways in which we are unable to fully see or comprehend ultimate truths. In Galatée, Magritte once more attempts to lift the curtain, creating a painting that hovers in a liminal space between reality and something else. Galatée is a subtly powerful stat.mes nt on the power and limitations of the human imagination; works such as the present continue to inspire and shape the visual iconography of the present day.

The celestial subject matter of the present work is particularly apt given that it was in the collects ion of aviation specialist Pierre Klees, the former CEO of the Brussels Airport. The work had been in his family since at least 1967 when it was acquired by Mme Leo Klees from Margaret Krebs, an art dealer in Brussels who worked often with Magritte and acquired many of his works, the present included, directly from the artist.