Reframing MAGRITTE'S La statue volante, Pauline Karpidas: The London Collection Evening Auction, Sotheby's

Posted: 15 Sep 2025 by PML

Magritte's La statue volante, painted in 1958, is being sold by Sotheby's, London, as part of the extraordinary collection of surrealist works assembled by Pauline Karpidas. It was installed in the salon of her house in London in a narrow parcel-gilt and black frame, as part of the various hangs in which this frame was repeated or partly echoed by other fairly plain mouldings in black, natural wood or overall gilding, centred or lifted here and there by a larger antique frame.

The effect of one work in a great collection, however, can be very different from that work seen in another setting - by itself, perhaps, as the single feature on wall elsewhere. The frame which responded to neighbouring frames when it hung two or three deep on a wall of pictures seems, when its painting is standing alone, offered as a work which is dependent only on its self and its immediate context, neither wide enough to project the canvas with authority, nor important enough for the stature of artist and painting.

This was remedied by the frame offered by Paul Mitchell Ltd - a 19th century NeoClassical revival pattern, retaining its original finish of black paint with a slender gilded inlay at the sight edge. The profile of this frame is a complex system of convex and concave mouldings, which reflects the unsettling lighting of the painted objects in its sheeny highlights and velvet shadows. As can be seen in the detail above, it has a substantial plastic heft and weight, enhancing the presence of the painting and emphasizing its sculptural qualities. Even a masterpiece can gain from its presentation...

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