The painting was purchased from a Belgian private collection for €2.4 million. The enigmatic composition of Le Palais de Rideaux, which characteristically blends reality and illusion in Magritte’s distinctive style, represents an early milestone in his career and is a disturbing masterpiece by one of the leading figures of Surrealism. Created during Magritte’s Paris period, the work marks a breakthrough moment in his artistic development and enriches the Kunsthalle’s collection of Surrealist art. The museum already owns works by key Surrealist protagonists such as René Magritte, Hans Arp, Robert Desnos, Óscar Dominguez, Edgar Ende, Max Ernst, Paul Klee, and Man Ray.
Le Palais de Rideaux depicts four overlapping grey, shadow-like forms against a yellow-brown background. Within three of these hollow, body-shaped silhouettes — where one would expect to find a human head and torso — appear cut-out images: a mysterious golden pattern, a forest, and a cloud-filled sky. In the fourth form, a draped dark fabric curtain is visible. These cut-outs and drapery motifs are recurring, emblematic elements in Magritte’s work.
The painting stems from a period in which the artist engaged with darker, psychologically charged, and archetypal themes, in contrast to the more accessible imagery of his later works that would gain broad popular appeal. Le Palais de Rideaux may also be connected to the personal trauma of Magritte’s mother’s suicide — her body was found in a river with her nightgown wrapped around her head.
This work, which reinterprets the artistic convention of depicting drapery and veils as demonstrations of technical mastery, marks the beginning of Magritte’s lifelong exploration of illusion, concealment, and the riddles of life and perception. As the artist once reflected: “We are surrounded by curtains. We perceive the world only behind a curtain of appearances. At the same time, something must be hidden in order to be recognized at all.”
Main Image: Prof. Dr. Alexander Klar, Direktor Hamburger Kunsthalle, Dr. Bernd Kundrun, Vorsitzender des Kuratoriums der Stiftung Hamburger Kunst-sammlungen, Elisabeth Lorenz-Meyer, Geschäftsführerin Stiftung Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, Toby Kamps, Leitung und Ausstellungskurator Moderne, Dr. Helga Huskamp, Geschäftsführerin Hamburger Kunsthalle (v.l.n.r.) vor dem neuerworbenen Gemälde Le Palais de Rideaux, 1928 von René Magritte (1898–1967)
