LONDON.- Christie's will present René Magritte's Les grâces naturelles as the leading highlight of its upcoming The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale on 5 March 2026. Offered at auction for the first time, and having remained in the same private collection for 25 years, this defining work carries an estimate of £6,500,000-9,500,000.

Painted circa 1961 with extraordinary colours and exhibited at the Magritte Museum in Brussels since its opening in 2009, Les grâces naturelles is a compelling expression of René Magritte's enduring fascination with metamorphosis and visual paradoxes. The work revisits one of the artist's most recognisable and successful motifs: the fantastical “leaf-bird,” a hybrid form poised between two states of being, captured at the moment of transformation.

René Magritte realised 18 canvases devoted to this important motif over the course of his career, as he often did with his subjects most in demand. He first explored it in a series of oil and gouache paintings in the early 1940s, beginning with L'Ile au Trésor (1942), possibly inspired by the view of an aviary from the window of his home at 135 Rue Esseghem in Brussels. Nearly two decades later, he returned to the subject with renewed focus and intensity with Les grâces naturelles, realising one of the two largest existing paintings featuring the so-called “leaf-bird.”

Transformation lies at the core of the painting. Rather than simply combining two distinct elements, René Magritte was drawn to the tension of the in-between state, where change unfolds gradually and remains unresolved. It is this sense of suspension that gives the leaf-birds their quiet surreal charge, as they hover between grounded stillness and the possibility of flight.

Departing from earlier treatments of the motif, here the leaf-birds are not set within an open landscape. Instead, they stand against a dense, flat backdrop of meticulously rendered foliage. Painted with painstaking repetition, this blue-toned screen of leaves - suggestive of horse chestnut branches - compresses space and disrupts depth, a strategy Magritte employed in several works from this period for both its decorative effect and its conceptual resonance. In the foreground, a single bird stretches its wings, inviting the viewer to imagine the next moment in the scene. Will the dove finally break free from its vegetal form, or remain forever tethered to the earth? With his characteristic subtlety, Magritte leaves the question unanswered, allowing the mystery of transformation to persist.

A sculpture version of Les grâces naturelles, conceived by Magritte and cast in 1967, drawing on motifs from his earlier paintings of the same theme, was sold by Christie's in 2024, setting a world auction record for a sculpture by the artist.

Olivier Camu, Deputy Chairman, Impressionist and Modern Art, Christie's: “By the early 1960s, René Magritte was reflecting on his life and career, revisiting earlier compositions he felt carried the strongest poetic power and could reveal new meaning through subtle revision. In Les grâces naturelles, he returns to one of his most successful motifs, the “leaf-bird”, challenging, as always, our accepted views of everyday things – here trees, birds, and leaves – and thus releasing the mystery of reality. We are delighted to present this exceptional work in the upcoming The Art of the Surreal evening sale, a landmark moment of our 20/21 Marquee Week in March.”

The work will be presented at Christie's Hong Kong (3-6 February 2026) ahead of the public view in London, open from 25 February 2026. More information on christies.com.

The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale, part of the 20th/21st Century Art London Marquee Week, is the only major international auction solely dedicated to Surrealism, its forebears, and influences. Christie's has held this sale since 1989, longer and more consistently than any other auction house, achieving record-breaking prices.