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Lost jockey

René Magritte • Painting, 1926, 39.5×54 cm
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About the artwork
This artwork was added since it is referred to in the materials below
Art form: Painting
Subject and objects: Allegorical scene
Style of art: Surrealism
Technique: Collage
Materials: Paper
Date of creation: 1926
Size: 39.5×54 cm
Artwork in selections: 25 selections

Description of the artwork «Lost jockey»

The Lost Jockey - one of the many years of work by Rene Magritte, to which hecame back almost until death. And this is not surprising, because it was the first appearance of the jockey that marked a turning point in the artist's work and the beginning of a completely new period in his career. The period in which the famous "Son of man","Golconda"And"Treachery of Images".

Rene Magritte began to search for new ways in art around 1924, under the influence of collagesMax ernst and pictures Giorgio de chirico. In the next two years, the artist created a series of collages that could already be called surreal, but the very first and most important of these works, Magritte himself considered it was the “Lost Jockey”. The artist said: “This is the first painting that I really wrote with the feeling that I found my way, if such a concept can be used.”

This collage became the central exhibit and gave the name to the first Magritte solo exhibition, which took place in Brussels in 1927. In the very first version of this picture, symbolic symbols have already appeared, the hallmarks of Magritte’s work - the columns, they are trees, in this case, carved from a sheet of music. Of course, the name of the collage, which contains a clear contradiction, is of paramount importance. A great lover of paradoxes and oxymorons, the artist leaves the viewer perplexed to wonder how a jockey can get lost or get lost, whose path always runs along a clearly defined circular path?

Another important detail is the theater curtain, which frames the “Lost Jockey” and thanks to which the picture looks like a decoration. Perhaps the reason for the appearance of the curtain here was the fact that in the early 1920s Magritte created the scenery for the experimental theater group Theater du Groupe Libre. Such curtains, like columns, will become an integral part of the artist's work and will often appear in his works. It is noteworthy that in the last picture from the series “The Lost Jockey” Magritte again uses a similar technique, only in this case the stone fractures serve as a frame for the hero of the canvas.

Some critics believe that René Magritte was seriously influenced by the work of Giorgio de Chirico, who used a strange set of seemingly unrelated objects and thereby invited the viewer to an area dominated by a completely different hidden logic. Magritte was inspired by the Italian experiments with reality, but he did not like the mysticism of de Chirico, so he denied his influence: “When, approximately in 1925, I saw de Chirico's painting“ A Song of Love ”, I was amazed. But the Lost Jockey has no resemblance to it. The influence in question is limited by great emotion, wonderful revelation, when for the first time in my life I saw truly poetic painting. ”

Author: Evgenia Sidelnikova
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