Enchanted Area (IV)

This painting is the fourth in a series of eight works by René Magritte commissioned by Gustave Nellens, the owner of a casino in the Belgian coastal town of Knokke-les-Zoutes. Each of these paintings was later transferred as frescoes to the walls of the circular casino hall, so that together they formed a panorama.

Many of the images that appear in the works united under the title Enchanted Area were borrowed by the artist from his earlier works. For example, in the fourth painting of the series we see the outline of a ship whose silhouette is filled with the image of the sea, which refers us to a series of paintings called "The Seducer.". At the same time, the peculiar anti-Mermaid, a creature with the legs of a woman and the torso of a fish, makes us think of "Collective Invention." и "Wonders of Nature (Love Song)"the ship's crew, on which this character appears for the first time, is not seduced by the sirens. Interestingly, unlike traditional sirens, Magritte's heroine does not seduce the ship's crew, but rather, on the contrary, the ship attracts her by reminding her of the sea. Thus, Enchanted Area (IV) becomes a space for three semantic inversions at once: the frigate and the water surface, the mermaid's upper and lower body, and the relationship between the ship and the siren we know from ancient myths are swapped places.

The Belgian poet and friend of Magritte, Paul Colinet, who often helped the painter in choosing titles for his paintings, wrote short poems for each work in the Enchanted Area series. He dedicated the following words to the fourth painting:

"Protected from the sea by a great curtain, a charming ship of sea water tells her wanderings to an overturned mermaid."

Text prepared by Elina Bagmet