Magritte wine bottle nude fetches $700k

Christie’s New York has sold a work by artist René Magritte that was painted on an empty bottle of claret for over US$700,000.

Christie’s specialist, Jessica Fertig, with Femme-Bouteille.

Femme-Bouteille, which features a female nude is just one of a series of such works by the Belgian surrealist and was sold in New York at Christie’s latest Impressionist and Modern art sale.

Estimated at between $500,000 to $800,000 it was finally sold for $725,000.

The work was painted in 1940 or 1941 when wartime restrictions meant canvas was in very short supply and many artists began turning to other mediums on which to work.

As Christie’s specialist, Jessica Fertig, noted in this in-house interview: “Many, like Picasso, were working on paper or board. Magritte began to paint on wine bottles because they were readily available. Those on which he painted female nudes have become among his most coveted.”

Femme-Bouteille was painted in oils on an empty Bordeaux bottle. Fertig added that the shape of the bottle, with its tall straight sides, perfectly suited what Magritte wanted for his painting-cum-sculpture.

She said: “Magritte very purposefully counters the curving forms of the female body he represents. His shading emphasises the illusion, following the surrealist idea of taking an object and transforming it into something it is not.”

The bottle has also had a number of illustrious owners in its lifetime, having been the property of another leading Belgian surrealist, Paul Delvaux, who gave it to painter Olivier Picard who in turn gave it to famous British tailor Hardy Amies – who had worked as a secret agent for SOE in Belgium during the war.

Some further examples of Magritte’s wine bottle paintings