Magritte in Full Sunlight. The “Renoir” Period at Paris Musée de l’Orangerie - New dates

An exhibition about Magritte’s Renoir Period is coming to the Musée de l’Orangerie. This period – from 1941 to 1947 – is described as a cycle during which the painter wished to see the bright side of life and was inspired by impressionists. As an outcome, over a hundred works. Running from May 19 to July 19, 2021.

Paris delights us with wonderful exhibitions focusing on WWII, and among them, the Musée de l'Orangerie highlights the funny work of an artist disillusioned by the German occupation: René Magritte, who decided from 1941 to 1947 to show “the bright side of life” in “solar” style paintings, inspired by impressionists such as Renoir or Seurat, nicknamed his “Renoir Period”.

This beautiful exhibition called Magritte / Renoir. Surrealism in full sunlight is to be discovered from May 19 to July 19, 2021. The online ticketing service opens from May 6: since gauges for museums are limited, do not forget to book your tickets ahead of your visit to be sure you can enjoy the exhibition as soon as it opens.

The Musée de l'Orangerie highlights sixty paintings and about forty drawings from this oh-so special and creative period dear to the artist's heart. To better grasp the influence of these works of art, the museum shows at the same time Renoir's paintings, and paintings by other artists to confront universes that seemed very different.

In the Magritte exhibition, Magritte's paintings are placed across works of art by Renoir, Picabia, and other pieces, by Jeff Koons for instance, that has been inspired by this Renoir period.

In a letter to Paul Eluard in 1941, Magritte writes “…the bright side of life would be the area that I would explore. By this I mean all the traditional array of delightful things: women, birds, flowers, trees and an atmosphere of happiness. […] a quite powerful charm has now replaced the disquieting poetry I used to strive for in my paintings”. Over his Renoir Period, Magritte paints about fifty paintings, as many gouaches and a large amount of drawings, including La Fleur du Mal, as a tribute to Baudelaire.

For the painter, it is a reform of surrealism. In October 1946, Magritte sends André Breton his manifesto “Surrealism in Full Sunlight”, that will be rejected. After that, the painter decides to work on a series of grotesque portraits.

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