'L'ami intime' (The Intimate Friend) by René Magritte

Only the best will do for a Magritte, which sold for $43 million at auction earlier this month.

On 7th March 2024, this culturally-significant artwork was auctioned as the primary highlight of the annual ‘The Art of the Surreal Evening Sale’ at Christie’s. As well as framing this Magritte, John Davies Framing also framed a number of other high profile artists such as Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, and Remedios Varo for this event.

The lone figure of the man in the bowler hat appears often in Magritte’s work, including his most well-known self-portrait, ‘The Son of Man’ (1964), showcasing his characteristic use of anonymous figures and objects in unusual settings. ‘L’ami Intime’ has not been available for auction since 1980, and has toured the world in the lead up to the Evening Sale.

How did we make it?

The development of a luxury, period-correct frame is a complex task that requires all hands on deck. To complement this Magritte masterpiece, our talented team quickly and expertly produced a prestige Scotia Shelf frame.

First stage is to do a design and scale drawing.

We map out the size of the sections and how they join together. We measured the Magritte and incorporated its custom size into the required rebate (the inner cut-out lip of the frame that holds the artwork).

Next, we pick and cut the wood.

To compliment the Magritte, we chose to work with a gorgeous pearwood tree trunk for this frame, which was then laminated onto thick trenched pine for support and better durability.

We meticulously layered up the pearwood pieces on top of the pine, piece by piece, to ensure the precise size required by the painting, before we glued, pinned and clamped the frame.

Then, we sand and polish the frame to the highest standard.

Once the glue dried, we fully sanded by hand to give the smoothest surface for the polish.

The polish was applied in two stages to give the most high quality outcome. First, we applied 7 layers of stain and button polish, built up and sanded in between. Then, we applied another 7 layers of button polish, with wax rubbed smooth with fine wire wool.

Did you know? We pay just as much attention to the back of the frame. We also paint, frame, and polish the wood, branding it with the John Davies Framing mark of quality. For this particular bespoke frame, we also gilded the sight edge (the inner edge) of the frame with gold leaf to further enhance the Magritte. We distressed and darkened it in tone to ensure it was complimentary and not overwhelming to the piece.

Last, we add the finishing touches.

The face of the frame gets a very soft distress to give the impression of age, before a final buff up with a soft cloth to bring it to perfection.

Our influence on the art world

Magritte is just one of the groundbreaking and influential artists we have framed. Our influence in framing masterpieces stretches to Van Gogh, Magritte, Picasso, Rembrandt, Renoir, Monet, Cezanne, and more.

Find out more about these prestige frames and how they were made in our Reframing Masterpieces series.

Find out more about our story here.