To celebrate its 25 years of sales dedicated to Surrealism, Christie’s returns to London with a surrealist auction, featuring a catalog that traces the many facets of the European movement.
How did the bond between Christie’s and Surrealism begin?
The history of art also passes through its market, and that of the market becomes, at least in part, art history. In this intertwining, the role of Christie’s is inserted, which since 1989 has built a format dedicated to Surrealism.
In that year, the house inaugurated The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale in London, the first international sale entirely reserved for Dada and Surrealism. Over time, this series of auctions has consolidated the presence of the two movements on the global map.
The works have entered important private collections and museums, contributing to the spread of languages that were originally disruptive. That said, the milestone of 25 years of specialized sales today becomes an opportunity for a new reading of these paths.
What does the surrealist auction on March 5 in London offer?
On March 5 in London, the Evening Sale dedicated to Surrealism brings together masterpieces by René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Dorothea Tanning, Max Ernst, Odilon Redon, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, and Toyen. The selection spans decades and geographies, reflecting the multiple interpretations of the European movement.
Overall, the auction does not just gather famous names but shows how the dreamlike imagery, the tension between visible and invisible, and the relationship with the psyche have taken different forms between Belgium, France, Spain, and the Czech area.
Why does Magritte still lead the market?
The top lot of the sale is Les grâces naturelles by René Magritte, with an estimate of 6.5–9.5 million pounds. Created around 1961, the painting has been on display since 2009, the year of the opening of the Magritte Museum in Brussels.
The canvas concentrates the poetic and conceptual essence of the Belgian artist. On a clear and luminous palette appears one of his most famous motifs, the bird-leaf, caught in the moment of metamorphosis. This hybrid form embodies the tension between nature and artifice.
Moreover, the image reflects the dialectic between visible and invisible that runs through all his work, with a balance between apparent simplicity and philosophical density. Compared to other more narrative cycles, here the idea appears reduced to the essential.
Equally emblematic is Le choeur des sphinges (1964), estimated at 5–8 million pounds. Magritte constructs a wooded landscape inhabited by five floating forms – including the famous pipe – all with the same wooden texture as the trees below.
The play of transformations, conducted with irony and formal clarity, refers to his collage experiments of the twenties, filtered through the full stylistic maturity of the sixties. However, the scene retains an enigmatic, almost suspended dimension.
Earlier and pervaded by a subtle narrative ambiguity is La jeunesse illustrée (1937), valued at 1.8–2.5 million pounds. A rural scene crossed by figures and objects in a dreamlike procession, intertwining the everyday and the fantastic.
The painting was purchased in 1938 by Paul-Henri Spaak, future Belgian prime minister, a detail that attests to its prestigious provenance. Compared to other contemporary works, the narrative component here appears particularly accentuated.
What role does Paul Delvaux play in this surrealist auction?
After remarkable results achieved in recent London auctions, Paul Delvaux returns as a protagonist with two key works. The first is La Ville lunaire (1944), with an estimate of 2–3 million pounds, painted in the spring of Liberation.
The scene presents a silent, almost metaphysical architecture, suspended in moonlight. Female figures move like apparitions in a space that is both classical and unsettling, an unmistakable hallmark of his mature surrealist vision.
The painting has remained in the same private collection for over fifty years and was exhibited at the major retrospective at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in 1944 and at the Venice Biennale in Venice in 1954. This exhibition history strengthens its market weight.
Of equal intensity is L’Été (1963), estimated at 1.5–2.5 million pounds. Here five female figures, wrapped in timelessly colored garments, populate a motionless forest, in a suspension that recalls theater and dream.
Furthermore, the painting highlights Delvaux’s dialogue with the metaphysical tradition and the construction of a personal mythology of the feminine. Compared to urban compositions, nature here becomes a mental scenario more than a real landscape.
How does Dorothea Tanning stand out in the catalog?
Among the most magnetic lots is Children’s Games (1942) by Dorothea Tanning, with an estimate of 1–2 million pounds. The work was created at a crucial moment in her journey, when the artist defined a strongly personal language.
The painting shows two girls tearing wallpaper in a domestic corridor, revealing beneath the surface a carnal and restless swarm. The image, loaded with psychological tension, overturns the surrealist cliché of the femme-enfant.
However, it is not just an act of childish rebellion: the theme of emancipation and discomfort runs through all her subsequent work. Presented in 1943 at the historic Exhibition by 31 Women at Peggy Guggenheim’s Art of This Century gallery, the painting was purchased in 1948 by the famous Gypsy Rose Lee.
This exhibition and collecting trajectory, involving central figures of the New York avant-garde, today strengthens collectors’ interest in Tanning’s painting, in line with the growing focus on the female protagonists of the movement.
What does Toyen represent in the dialogue between Prague and Paris?
Another significant female voice is Toyen with Le devenir de la liberté (1946), estimated at 1.2–2.2 million pounds. The work was created immediately after the end of World War II, when the Czech artist emerged from years of hiding.
In the painting, descriptive detail intertwines with visionary imagination. A mass of peas thickens to suggest an ambiguous humanoid figure, while swallows cross an illusionistic sky, creating a contrast between lightness and unease.
Nature and domestic space interpenetrate in a sort of allegory of rebirth, reflecting the resumption of dialogue between the Czech and Parisian surrealist groups. Moreover, the work confirms the market’s attention to the rarity of her canvases from this period.
What is the significance of Miró in the surrealist auction?
From the Renker Collection comes Peinture (1949) by Joan Miró, valued at 1.5–2.5 million pounds. The work belongs to the cycle of the so-called Slow Paintings, among the most meditated of the Catalan’s production.
Suspended forms, calibrated signs, and meticulously worked surfaces reveal a poetic and contemplative dimension, considered among the peaks of his career. In contrast to the more gestural works of the following years, here every intervention appears measured.
Overall, the presence of Miró alongside Magritte, Delvaux, Tanning, and Toyen underscores how auctions dedicated to Surrealism have become, over the years, an essential tool for rethinking the canon of the movement, bringing together established protagonists and voices long overshadowed.
IMAGE: RENE MAGRITTE (1898-1967) L’empire des lumières, oil on canvas, 19 1/8 x 23 1/8 in. (48.5 x 58.7 cm.), Painted in 1949, Estimate: $25 – 35 million
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