A bird composed of a brilliant blue daytime sky dotted with soft, white clouds soars in the darkness of night. Below her rests a nest with three white eggs. The forest below, shrouded in darkness, appears peaceful and distant. This bird is frozen in motion, captured in time. Much like Magritte's Dominion of Light paintings, this work simultaneously depicts night and day, capturing the viewer in an indiscernible, dreamlike moment.

Created after the 1940 original oil on canvas Le retour (Return) by René Magritte (1898-1967), this original color lithograph was published and printed by Philippe Moreno, Paris in 2003. This work is signed 'Magritte' in facsimile in graphite color in the lower right margin and signed in pencil in the lower left margin by the representative of ADAGP representing the Magritte Succession, Mr. Charly Herscovici. Numbered 284/300 in pencil in the lower left margin (from the total edition of 360, 300 examples numbered 1-300, 45 artist's proofs numbered 1-45, and 15 copies reserved for the Succession Magritte), this work is stamped with the ADAGP blindstamp in the lower left margin and the Succession Magritte blindstamp in the lower right margin. On the back of this work is an extensive block of printed text stating the title, provenance, tirage, and details of the original oil on canvas.

DOCUMENTED AND ILLUSTRATED IN:
1. Meuris, Jacques. Magritte. London: Greenwich Editions, 1988. Original 1954 oil on canvas illustrated and discussed on pg. 170.

About the Framing:
Museum grade conservation framed in a complementary moulding with silk mats and optical grade Plexiglas.