The Countess of Monte Cristo (Plate 1), 1966

"The Countess of Monte Cristo (Plate 1)" is an etching created by René Magritte in 1966 for his series "Aube A l’antipode". From the edition of 92, the artwork is signed 'Magritte' lower right and annotated lower left. The artwork is framed in a custom silver closed-corner frame and has a framed size of 17.5 x 15.5". The artwork ships framed and accompanied by a certificate of authenticity.

The artist book known as "Dawn at the Antipode (Aube a l’antipode)" was a collaboration between the revered French poet Alain Jouffroy and the great 20th Century surrealist, Rene Magritte. Jouffroy was a French writer, poet, and artist. He was an early advocate of an Art Strike and formed the "L’Union des Escrivains" during the strikes of May 1968 in France with Jean-Pierre Faye. He was also a major influence on the Zanzibar Group—part of the French New Wave who took part in the Paris demonstrations at that time.

The seven etchings chosen for the book by Magritte recall Magritte’s most iconic imagery. Each was created as an etching from an original pen and ink drawing by the artist. The book as an object came to fruition through the famed surrealist publisher of art-object books, François Di Dio of the "Le Soleil Noir" publishing house. Di Dio typically produced a book as an object in a small edition of less than one hundred as the ‘A’ edition, with second ‘B’ and third ‘C’ editions of less artistry (the C edition was typically a widely printed ‘pocket’ book). The first edition of Dawn at the Antipode numbers to about ninety-two with some artist proofs also known. These were created in the object tradition with a clamshell hidden compartment concealing a metal ‘Magritte’ bell or rattle. The outer cover of the book has cutouts including a bird, a wine glass, a leaf, and a pipe. Magritte signed and numbered the inner compartment holding the bell in each book.

The prints offered here are from the rare edition of the book, number 11, which included a full set of the seven etchings on large-format paper, all hand-signed and numbered by Magritte. Only the first 17 of 77 copies of the book have all seven hand-signed etchings on large-format paper. The remainder came with just two of the signed etchings per book. There were also artist proofs of the book including fifteen lettered A to O.

In "The Countess of Monte Cristo," Magritte presents a seemingly modest scene, a grouping of five wine bottles arranged on a wooden plank surface. Four stand upright in quiet formation, but one lies knocked over, as if toppled in haste or aftermath. Yet it is within one of the upright bottles that the surrealist rupture occurs: a woman’s figure appears compressed inside - her face peering through the neck, her shoulders tapering through the glass opening, while the rest of her torso and thighs conform unsettlingly to the bottle’s main body.

This image is at once absurd and psychologically loaded, inviting metaphors of containment, objectification, and theatrical illusion. The title, a twist on "The Count of Monte Cristo," recast in the feminine, suggests a narrative of transformation, exile, or disguise, but here inverted into stillness and enclosure. The woman is not escaping; she is sealed in, rendered a cabinet curiosity or a message in a bottle.

Magritte’s interest in the intersection of the human body and the inanimate reaches a chilling refinement here. The bottle, an object associated with pleasure, intoxication, or ritual, becomes a vessel of identity distortion, turning the female figure into both spectacle and symbol. She is visible, but unreachable; eroticized, yet immobilized. It is not just the figure but the idea of femininity itself that is “bottled”—placed on display within the ritualistic trappings of bourgeois domesticity.

Meanwhile, the overturned bottle introduces a quiet tension — a trace of action or imbalance, a rupture in the otherwise frozen composition. Does it signal collapse, resistance, or escape? The ambiguity is quintessential Magritte: the narrative remains locked, but the unease seeps out. Far from merely whimsical, this etching proposes a powerful allegory—of how identity, especially female identity, is shaped, distorted, or obscured by the vessels that claim to contain it.