- 4
René Magritte
Description
- René Magritte
- La Condition Humaine
- Signed Magritte (lower right); titled on the reverse
- Oil on canvas
- 10 1/8 by 8 1/8 in.
- 25.7 by 20.6 cm
Provenance
Julien Levy, New York (acquired from the artist in 1936)
Notizie Arte Contemporanea, Turin
Galleria Levi, Milan & Rome
Sale: Christie's, New York, November 15, 1989, lot 456
Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels & Paris (acquired at the above sale)
Acquired from the above in 1990
Exhibited
New York, Julien Levy, René Magritte, 1936, no. 17
New York, Byron Gallery, Magritte, 1968, no. 7, illustrated in the catalogue
Tokyo, Tokyo Art Expo, 1990, no. B 453
Tokyo, Fukuoka Art Museum, René Magritte, 1995
Tokyo, Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, Surrealism & Art- Image & Reality, 2007
Literature
"Letter from Magritte to Paul Eluard, December 1925", in Moie, 1980, pp. 75-76
David Sylvester, Sarah Whitfield & Michael Raeburn, René Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné, Oil Paintings and Objects 1931-1948, vol. II, London, 1993, no. 372, illustrated p. 200
Siegfried Gohr, Magritte, Das Unmögliche versuchen, Cologne, 2008, illustrated in color
Condition
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.
Catalogue Note
The painting within a painting was one of Magritte's most engaging illusionistic themes. Calling to question the nature of reality and the illusion of art, this finely detailed canvas from 1935 belongs to a series of pictures all titled La Condition humaine. Magritte provided the following explanation of the image: "La condition humaine was the solution to the problem of the window. I placed in front of a window seen from inside a room, a painting representing exactly that part of the landscape which was hidden from view by the painting.... Which is how we see the world: we see it as being outside ourselves even though it is only a mental representation of it that we experience inside ourselves. In the same way, we sometimes situate in the past a thing which is happening in the present. Time and space thus lose their crude meaning, which is the only one they have in everyday experience" (quoted in Magritte (exhibition catalogue), Sarah Whitfield, The South Bank Centre, London, 1992, no. 62).
In 1936, this canvas was exhibited at the first solo show of Magritte's work in the United States. At that exhibition at Julien Levy's gallery in New York, this picture hung alongside other small replicas or variations of earlier images, all painted in 1935. The present picture is one of the five paintings purchased by Levy himself at that exhibition.