Oil on canvas
Thwarted desires are a common theme in Magritte’s work. Here, a barrier of fabric divides the intimate embrace of two lovers, transforming an act of passion into one of isolation and frustration. Some have speculated that the death of Magritte’s mother, by suicide, inspired a series of works in which he obscured his subjects’ faces. The artist was fourteen years old when her body was found in the River Sambre in Lessines, Belgium, with her wet nightgown purportedly wrapped around her face. Magritte disagreed with such interpretations, writing that meaning was elusive in his paintings: “‘What does it mean?’ It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”
517: A Surreal Lens, 2025
Provenance Research Project
This work is included in the Provenance Research Project, which investigates the ownership history of works in MoMA's collection.
Jean Bastien, Brussels, by 1953 [1]. [E.L.T. (Edouard Léon Théodore) Mesens (1903-1971), Brussels and London] [2]. Fernand Graindorge (1903-1985), Liège, by 1955 [3]; to Hecker Jensen, Basel [4]; sold to Richard L. Feigen Gallery, Chicago, by 1958 [5]; sold to Richard S. Zeisler, New York, September 1958 [6]; acquired by The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1998 (Bequest of Richard S. Zeisler).
[1] See David Sylvester and Sarah Whitfield, eds. René Magritte: Catalogue raisonné I: Oil Paintings 1916-1930, Houston: Menil Foundation et al., 1992, p. 296, no. 250: "It may have been for some time (according to Marcel Mariën) in the collection of Jean Bastien, Brussels. It must have been the version recorded in a sale of modern pictures at the Galerie Georges Giroux, Brussels, on 17 October 1953, where lot 333 was entitled 'Les Amants' … but according to an annotation made by Mesens in his copy of the catalogue, it was withdrawn."
[2] Per Richard L. Feigen, "according to whom it had formerly been in the collections of E.L.T. Mesens and Hecker Jensen, Basle" (ibid., p. 297).
[3] Lender to the exhibitions L'Apport wallon au surréalisme: peinture poésie, Musée des Beaux Arts, Liège, October 13-November 12, 1955, no. 59; and XXXe Salon. Cercle royal artistique et littéraire de Charleroi, Salle de la Bourse, Charleroi, March 3-22, 1956, no. 51 (Les amants [I]).
[4] See David Sylvester and Sarah Whitfield, eds. René Magritte, p. 296, no. 250.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Ibid.
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