René Magritte

Sale: Palais des Beaux Arts, Brussels, 1961

François & Evelyn Deknop, Brussels & Gérard & Suzi Oschinksy, Brussels (acquired jointly at the above sale)

Gérard & Suzi Oschinksy, Brussels

Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels (acquired from the above in 1966)

Sale: Christie's, London, April 6, 1976, lot 39

Private Collection (acquired at the above sale)

Bodley Gallery, New York 

Acquired by 1993

Brussels, Galerie Isy Brachot, Art sans frontières VII, 1972, no. 44

Hamburg, Kunstverein, 1982, no. 151

Rome, Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Moderna, Magritte e il surrealismo in Belgio, 1982, no. 146

Brussels, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, René Magritte de la Surrealisme en Belgique, 1982, no. 164, illustrated in the catalogue 

New York, The Elkon Gallery, Delvaux - Magritte, 1988, n.n., illustrated in the catalogue 

Yamaguchi, The Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art; Tokyo, National Museum of Modern Art & Tokyo, Tokyo Shimbun, René Magritte, 1988, no. 138

Berkeley, University Art Museum, University of California at Berkeley, Anxious Visions Surrealist Art, 1990, no. 93

Paris, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Face à l'histoire, 1996-97, no. 742

Brussels, Musée Roaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Retrospective René Magritte, 1998, n.n.

Roslyn, Nassau County Museum of Art, Surrealism, A Cross Cultural Perspective, 2000-01, no. 136

Tokyo, The National Art Center & Kyoto, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, René Magritte: The Search for the Absolute, 2015

Art sans frontières VII (exhibition catalogue), Galerie Isy Brachot, Brussels, 1972, illustrated on an invitation card

David Sylvester & Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte, Catalogue raisonné, Oil Paintings and Objects 1931-1948, New York, 1993, vol. II, no. 578, illustrated p. 351

Painted in 1944 or 1945, La Dialectique appliquée ranks among the most singular works within Magritte’s oeuvre. Rendered in an uncharacteristic format for the artist, this diptych is the only example from the artist’s entire oeuvre and is exclusive in its subject-matter, format and spirit. This exceedingly rare canvas is undated and absent from Magritte’s list of works, unmentioned in any of his letters, writings and or interviews and was not exhibited or reproduced during his lifetime. Despite its lack of documentation during the artist’s lifetime, we do know that Magritte was interested in buying it back and asked his friends François and Evelyn Deknop to bid on his behalf when the work was offered at Pierre Bergé & Associés in 1961. The Deknops purchased the work for him jointly with fellow collectors Gérard and Suzi Oschinksy who held onto the work until 1966 when it was sold to Magritte’s dealer Isy Brachot.

The dating and historical significance of the present work is discussed in the artist’s catalogue raisonné, “It is a dating which places the piece within a period when Magritte was trying to get away from the rectangular image. More importantly, it is a dating which not unexpectedly places the piece in the wake of the Liberation of Belgium in September 1944. From what we know of Magritte’s output during the twelve months of 1944 is the time when there seems to have been the space in which he could have realized a work which, given its painstaking technique and wealth of detail, could well have taken several weeks to carry out. If, as seems possible, it was designed for some sort of political purpose, then that period, immediately after the Liberation, was also the period when its realization would have been most timely. We therefore think it very probable that it dates from the last quarter of 1944, but still have to allow for the possibility that it was not painted or not completed until 1945” (D. Sylvester & S. Whitfield, Op. cit. p. 351).