René Magritte worked for Marcel Mariën and the Belgian surrealists.

René Magritte (1898-1967)

Autographed letter signed to the publisher Alain Gheerbrant.

One page in-4° on brown paper.

Brussels (1945/46)

"From Sade to Lenin"

Interesting letter relating to the highlighting of Marcel Mariën and the Belgian surrealist group.

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« Dear Sir,

Here is a photo of Marcel Mariën: "From Sade to Lenin" which I would like to see included in your issue of Vrille dedicated to Surrealism in Belgium.

Paul Nougé sends you texts.

Yesterday, I sent you some texts and photos.

I hope to hear from you soon and best regards.

Magritte.

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Marcel Mariën (1920–1993) was a multifaceted Belgian Surrealist artist, writer, publisher, photographer, filmmaker, and creator of collages and unusual objects. In 1979, he became the first historian of Surrealism in Belgium. In 1935, he attended the École populaire supérieure pour les travailleurs (a higher-level vocational school for workers) and encountered two paintings by René Magritte at an exhibition. In 1936, he discovered Surrealist books and journals and began writing poems in their style. In 1937, in Brussels, he met René Magritte, then Louis Scutenaire and Paul Nougé, and in September participated in a Surrealist exhibition organized in London. There, he exhibited his first object, L'introuvable (The Elusive One, a title given by Magritte): his glasses, which he had just broken, reduced to a single lens and two temples. Mariën quickly began working with Scutenaire and Nougé to create titles for Magritte's paintings. In August 1943, he published the first biography of Magritte, and, in 1979, the reference work on the history of surrealism in Belgium.

Paul Nougé (1895-1967) was a Belgian poet, instigator and theorist of Surrealism in Belgium. In 1925, Nougé met the French Surrealists: Aragon, Breton, and Éluard, and signed the pamphlet " La Révolution d'abord et toujours" (Revolution First and Forever). As Nougé, René Magritte, Goemans, Louis Scutenaire, and ELT Mesens grew closer, the autumn of 1926 marked the beginnings of the formation of the Brussels Surrealist group through the creation of joint pamphlets.