René Magritte works make first U.S. trip from Belgium vault to Naples

Six works of surrealist master René Magritte, most of them unseen outside of Belgium for 48 years, have come to The Baker Museum in a way the artist would have relished.

These paintings, spanning a 24-year period of the Belgian artist's life, will have their own gallery under the tile, "Magritte: Reflections of Another World," when the museum re-opens Dec. 1. They're on loan here for five years by chance of a business card handed to an usher at a Naples Philharmonic Masterworks concert.

"Last March, when we had some of the Ballet Russe theme with (the paper Isabelle de Borchgrave costumes), the lender of those works attended one of those concerts," said Kathleen van Bergen, CEO and president of Artis—Naples.

The museum and the orchestra are both resident at Artis—Naples, and the concert had presented part of the museum's exhibition of costumes from "The Firebird" with the philharmonic's two performances of it. 

The lender had attended one of the concerts, and expressed an interest to an usher in talking with the museum's curatorial team. She gave the usher her business card, but the encounter didn't include a mention of ownership of the paintings, van Bergen recalled.

"It's a credit to the team here, not only to follow through, but the curiosity, that this business card made its way to me," she said. Not long after, van Bergen was talking with her in person.

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"It's just an incredible, serendipitous time — that she has had these works," van Bergen continued. "That she wants to see them more, I believe is the term she expressed to Elliott (King, special curator for this exhibition). She wants to share them more. And the timeliness of the re-opening of the museum was a big part of that incredible act of sharing.

Magritte, who died in 1967, is long revered as one of the pioneers of surrealism. He may be known around the world for his everyman characters in bowler hats, his cloud-dotted skies and his deep-bowled pipes. He also has come into strong favor with collectors. His "La Sieze Septembre" (1957) sold last week at a Christie's auction for $19.6 million.

Visitors to The Baker Museum will see five oil paintings and one gouache by Magritte. Some of them, like "La Tour d'Ivoire" (1945), bear his trademark blue sky strewn with sharply defined cumulus clouds. "Shéhérezade" (1947)  trains disembodied eyes, adorned with pearls, over a landscape of — true to the quirks of surrealist artists — sleigh bells. 

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But there is a dreamy nude positioned under a crescent moon  ("Summer Holidays," 1956) said to be Magritte's wife, and muse, Georgette Berger. One of his earliest, "The Monumental Shadow," (1932) trains a giant sphere in position to bowl over a town on the distant horizon.

Former director Frank Verpoorten, a Belgian also played a role in cementing the plans for the exhibition. But he has been gone since May when, according to van Bergen, there was a mutual agreement for a separation. She found Elliott H. King, an associate professor of art at Washington & Lee University, and a recognized authority on another surrealist, Salvador Dali. 

"The joke was 'I'm going to send you a confidentiality agreement because we want to be responsible in how we roll this out to the world. Would you be willing to meet me in an undisclosed European location?' "  said van Bergen, laughing.

"It was very James Bond," King agreed. He received the location after he had signed the agreement. But by another fluke, while King was in Belgium, he was not able to see the paintings, which were being tested for their condition from the vault storage they had been in for decades in Belgium.

Still, he was able to meet with the daughter of the original collector of the works, Jean Van Parys, which resulted in an addition to the exhibition of a case of artifacts: photos of the collector, postcards and letters from Magritte. They add a humanizing perspective to a man known largely by his canvases, King said.

The exhibition promises to bring in art scholars from around the world as well as audiences in Florida and art lovers in the U.S. 

“Because these are things no one has seen for 50 years, 40 years, even in Europe, I would not be at all surprised if colleagues who are in Europe would get a flight here to see things they have not had the ability to see before," King said.

"Some books may have a lot of  these in black and white, but many of them haven’t even been reproduced in color."

King will return in February, on a yet undetermined date, to speak on the exhibition and on Magritte. The exhibition opens in tandem with another major exhibition, "Monet to Matisse: French Masterworks from the Dixon Gallery and Gardens."

Both are part of the re-opening of The Baker Museum, which has been closed since September 2017, after water intrusion from Hurricane Irma. Its repair and waterproofing plans were rolled into a project to enlarge the building, add a segment with meeting and conference space and change its access and garden to become more public.

Harriet Howard Heithaus covers arts and entertainment for the Naples Daily News/naplesnews.com. Reach her at 239-213-6091.

When: Noon Sunday, Dec. 1

Where: 5833 Pelican Bay Blvd., Naples

Admission: Free for the first month

Information: 239-597-1111; artisnaples.org