La Grande Guerre (The Great War)

This lithograph was printed and published in 2004 in our Art-Lithographies studio in Paris using 100% cotton 300 g/m² BFK Rives paper. Artwork entirely made in France: from the production of the paper in Arches in the Vosges department, to the traditional lithographic printing process, one drawing for each different color, one color per press run.

The lithograph was authorized, supervised and validated by the ADAGP (Society of Authors in the Graphic and Plastic Arts) and by Mr. Charly Herscovici, President of the Magritte Foundation, Chairman of the Magritte Museum and unique representative of the Magritte Succession.

Painted by René Magritte in 1964.

In 1912, Régina Magritte committed suicide by drowning herself. The image of Magritte’s mother floating, her dress hiding her face is a recurrent motif in Magritte’s work. The flowers obscuring the woman’s face may exhibits the terrifying time he went through. Why this particular flower ? Maybe it was Régina’s favorite flower, or the one that was on her coffin at her funeral, masking a face René will never be able to see again.

Magritte painted war as a beautiful woman, his mother. Dying in a war means returning to the womb, reuniting with our mother to be born again in a better world. Do we have a hidden adoration for war…?