Page from a sketchbook with three studies among others for 'Perspective: Manet’s Balcony', ca. 1948 - 1950

René Magritte's drawings are not as well-known as his painted oeuvre. Yet he drew intensively throughout his life. In this sketchbook sheet, the upper part is a study for the painting Perspective: Le balcon de Manet from 1950 of which the Ghent museum owns the second version. From the comparison of the drawing and the painting it appears that Magritte initially foresaw only two coffins, one sitting on the other's lap. In the painting, he followed Manet's original composition more closely with a seated 'figure' and several standing 'figures' behind it. In the centre of the sheet - and upside down - is the bust of a masked man with, next to him, the inscription 'Paris'. Magritte elaborated this representation in the gouache Flûte from 1948 (private collection). At the bottom, he drew several coffins in a shortened perspective, perhaps a study for Madame Récamier de David (private collection), another work in the 'Perspectives' series. On the reverse side of the sketch sheet, there are fourteen studies.