M_DU_038 LES DROITS DE L'HOMME _ RENÉ MAGRITTE 1947-1948 / ENDEL LEPP 2024- 2025
In 1948, while musing on the purpose of the titles he assigned to his paintings, René Magritte proclaimed: “I think the best title for a picture is a poetic one. In other words, a title consistent with the more or less lively emotion we feel when we look at the picture”. Across a series of handwritten manuscripts—now preserved in the Archives of Contemporary Art in Belgium and collectively known as “On Titles”— the artist offered a collection of short statements on some of his recent work. Among these brief notes, Magritte wrote about Les droits de l’homme: “Here, man is reminded of his right to act on objects and change the world”
Invoking the French translation of Thomas Paine’s seminal treatise, The Rights of Man, as well as H.G. Wells’s radical 1940 manifesto on universal human rights in the face of war, the painting presents an enigmatic, uncanny scene, in which an inanimate object is brought to life, in order to deliver a speech.
Christie’s, New York
Oil on canvas
144.8 x 114.6 cm (57 x 45 1⁄8 in.)
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