Artist: René Magritte
Year: circa 1939 – 1967
Medium: Oil on canvas and gouache on paper
The Empire of Light (French: L’Empire des lumières) is the title of a succession of paintings by René Magritte.[1] They depict the paradoxical image of a nocturnal landscape beneath a sunlit sky.[2] He explored the theme in 27 paintings (17 oil paintings and 10 gouaches) from the 1940s to the 1960s.[3][4] The paintings were not planned as a formal series. They have never all been exhibited together and are rarely exhibited in smaller groups.[1][4] The original French title, L’Empire des lumières is sometimes translated as singular, The Empire of Light,[5]: 60 p. [6]: 184 p. and sometimes as plural The Empire of Lights.[7]: 126 p. [8]: 177 p. Other translations include The Dominion of Light: making the distinction: "an empire exists in relation to a ruler, a dominion does not necessarily require this.”[4]