Le Bain de Cristal, René Magritte et Lalique, 2023

The giraffe standing tall in a crystal glass is inspired by a gouache entitled The Cut-Glass Bath. Magritte had first conceived this image in 1946 to illustrate a set of poems by Paul Éluard, Les nécessités de la vie et Les conséquences des rêves, précédés d’Exemples (Life’s Necessities and the Consequences of Dreams, Preceded by Examples). Magritte made a second version that same year, in a style borrowed from the Impressionist movement, especially Renoir. He sought to add joy, pure colour and sunlight to enliven the drab post-war period and forget the dark years of wartime. His exact reproduction of the pure colours was masterly, while preserving the specific characteristics of the materials, ranging from velvety to glossy, silky to shiny . Lalique’s crystalware perfectly captures Magritte’s stylistic essay, specific to his “Renoir period”. It pulls off the subtle feat of associating sanded crystal with polished, in exactly the way the painter would have wanted. The crystal gleams, while the giraffe has a docile look. The scale is exactly right because, in the original picture, the trees in the background make the goblet look huge enough to accommodate the giraffe. The Lalique sculpture gives the onlooker the very same impression, since the first thing they see is an outsize glass.

• Clear Crystal, Lost Wax
• Lost wax technique
• Dimensions: Crystal: H 54.5 x L 20.8 x D 15.6 cm. Base: H 5 x L 20 x D 20 cm
• Weight: 7.616 kg
• Limited edition of 50 pieces, piece delivered with a certificate of authenticity mentioning its number
• Handcrafted in France