Camille Goemans
1900-1960
poet

Magritte first met Camille Goemans in 1923, the poet being a member of the Correspondance group. Goemans moved to Paris prior to Magritte’s own arrival, and opened a gallery there under his own name. Owing to this connection, the artist would participate in several important group exhibitions in Paris, like L’exposition surréaliste in 1928, and La peinture au défi in 1930. In spring 1928, Goemans and Nougé founded the review Distances, to which Magritte contributed some drawings. Then, in March 1929, appeared Le Sens propre, a series of tracts by Magritte and Goemans, finely illustrating the special link between text and image. During the war, Camille Goemans helps Lou Cosyn, his companion, to open a gallery in Brussels and, from 1942, would become Magritte’s main dealer before the painter’s meeting with the American Alexandre Iolas.