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Artist or Maker: RENÉ MAGRITTE 1898 - 1967

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Date: Executed in 1955.

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Description: LA VALSE HÉSITATION
Signed Magritte (lower right); titled, signed Magritte and dated 1955 on the reverse

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Medium: Gouache on paper

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Dimensions: 10 1/2 by 13 3/4 in. 26.5 by 35 cm

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Provenance: Mrs. Van Den Broeck, Brussels (acquired from the artist)

Guy Pieters Gallery, Deurle (acquired from the above)

Private Collection, Belgium (acquired from the above and sold: Sotheby's, New York, May 3, 2006, lot 39)

Noortman Master Paintings, Maastricht (acquired at the above sale)

Acquired from the above

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Published: David Sylvester, Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte Catalogue Raisonné, vol. V, London, 1993, no. 1394a, illustrated

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Notes:

The obscuring of identity and the destabilization of the known world were constant themes in Magritte's art. The masked apples depicted in the present work from 1955, La Valse hésitation, first appeared in a 1950 oil of the same title. Magritte continued to incorporate the motif into several of his compositions over the next two decades with the interchangable title, Le Prêtre Marié. The contradictions inherent in both of these titles was indicative of the tantalizing subtext of the present work. The apples, known as the fruits of carnal knowledge, are seductively anthropomorphized by masks. By masking the apples, Magritte also turns the tables on an object which he often used to mask his own face.

The first owner of this work was Mrs. Van Den Broeck, the proprietress of "Vincent," which was one of Magritte's favorite restaurants on the rue des Dominicains in Brussels.