Woman behind the painting of Magritte

Under the picture of Rene Magritte, a mysterious portrait was discovered. Researchers found it using infrared reflectography and believe that it can be depicted on the artist’s wife.

Katrin Defate, senior researcher at the University of Liezha and royal museums of the elegant arts of Belgium, and Francis Vandepitt, senior curator of the modern art department, discovered this portrait under the fifth time of the year ( L A Cinquieme Saison, 1943). Based on the analysis of other portraits, the researchers suggest that the artist Georgett’s wife can be depicted by a woman. Rene Magritte married in 1922 and portrayed his wife in a number of paintings. “The bright red shade of the lips can be observed through the upper layer of paint in the center of the composition,” the researchers write in the new book “Rene Magritte: Materials of the Artist”, “the oval of the face, nose and hairstyle of the model correspond to the appearance of the Zhorhetta.”

Vandepitt and Defate say that the hidden picture resembles three portraits created by Magritt in 1944. One shows Georgett, and on the other two - Jacqueline Nonkels, a neighbor of the artist, and Lu Kosin, his wife of the dealer. On all three, you can see “realistically drawn faces”, which look “sharply contrasting with spinning strokes behind them”.

It is known that Magritte sometimes painted new works on top of the old ones. In 2013, researchers discovered part of the picture “Enchanted Pose” , which was considered missing since the 1930s. Over the next few years, the remaining three parts of the picture were found . It seems that Magritte cut the picture into four parts and drew a new job for each.