id: 150491 accession number: 1981.51 share license status: Copyrighted url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1981.51 updated: 2019-12-20 09:00:25.330000 Metaphysical Interior, c. 1917-1939. Attributed to Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978), and Óscar Domínquez (Spanish, 1906-1959). Oil on canvas; framed: 95.6 x 77.5 x 5.2 cm (37 5/8 x 30 1/2 x 2 1/16 in.); unframed: 73.2 x 54 cm (28 13/16 x 21 1/4 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, John L. Severance Fund 1981.51 title: Metaphysical Interior title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1917-1939 creation date earliest: 1917 creation date latest: 1939 current location: 225 German Expressionism & Surrealism creditline: John L. Severance Fund copyright: --- culture: Italy, 20th century technique: oil on canvas department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture collection: Mod Euro - Painting 1800-1960 type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS * Giorgio de Chirico (Italian, 1888-1978) - artist * Óscar Domínquez (Spanish, 1906-1959) - artist --- measurements: Framed: 95.6 x 77.5 x 5.2 cm (37 5/8 x 30 1/2 x 2 1/16 in.); Unframed: 73.2 x 54 cm (28 13/16 x 21 1/4 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: signed lower right: G. de Chirico, inscribed on verso: CH--17. translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: The Year in Review for 1981 opening date: 1982-02-17T05:00:00 The Year in Review for 1981. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer). title: Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960 opening date: 1987-09-16T04:00:00 Creativity in Art and Science, 1860-1960. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 16-November 8, 1987). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS --- PROVENANCE Paul Eluard [1895-1952], Paris date: Before 1940-before 1952 footnotes: * In a handwritten statement that was supplied with the painting upon its sale by E.V Thaw to CMA, Bernard Poissonnier said that he acquired the painting from Paul Eluard. Eluard’s daughter, Cécile, confirmed that her father owned the painting “avant la guerre,” meaning prior to May 1940. While Eluard was likely the painting’s first owner, with neither a firm attribution nor date of execution, Eluard’s years of ownership are difficult to establish. It was previously thought that Eluard exhibited the painting at the Musée du Jeu de Paume in 1937. However, there is no evidence that this exhibition ever took place. The error may derive from confusion with a different exhibition at the Jeu de Paume, Origines et Développement de l’art international indépendant, which included a de Chirico painting titled Intérieur métaphysique from the Eluard collection. The catalogue is not illustrated, but installation photographs indicate it was not the Cleveland painting that was exhibited, and that the catalogue must therefore refer to a different work of the same title. Eluard’s ownership of this work also points to its authorship by, if not de Chirico himself, then someone in his circle, possibly Óscar Domínguez or Max Ernst. Cécile Eluard recalled that Ernst enjoyed executing works in the manner of de Chirico, and it was Ernst who painted the earliest known de Chirico forgery. citations: * info:srw/diagnostic/1/1javax.xml.transform.TransformerException: org.oclc.wcapi.openURL.utils.WCAPIDiagnostic: 1/java.net.SocketException: Connection reset : CitationsCitations page number: url: * Robinson, William H. “De Chirco Forgeries: The Treachery of the Surrealists.” IFAR Journal 4, no. 1 (2001): 10-17. page number: url: * E.V. Thaw & Co., invoice to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Nov. 30, 1981, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: Bernard Poissonnier, Paris date: by 1952 footnotes: * In 1952, the Cleveland picture was exhibited as part of Poissonnier’s collection in the Basel Kunsthalle exhibition, Phantastiche Kunst des XX Jahrhunderts. citations: * Phantastiche Kunst des 20. Jahrhunderts. Basel, 1952. page number: url: * Robinson, William H. “De Chirco Forgeries: The Treachery of the Surrealists.” IFAR Journal 4, no. 1 (2001): 10-17. page number: url: * E.V. Thaw & Co., invoice to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Nov. 30, 1981, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: * J.T. Soby, letter to Eugene Thaw, July 20, 1972, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: (E. V. Thaw, New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art) date: Until 1981 footnotes: citations: * E.V. Thaw & Co., invoice to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Nov. 30, 1981, in CMA curatorial file. page number: url: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio date: 1984- footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: digital description: wall description: Greatly admired by the Surrealists, de Chirico joined the movement shortly after its formation in Paris in 1924. The Surrealist considered his "metaphysical" paintings of the 1910s models for exploring the unconscious through dream imagery. For years this painting, owned by Surrealist poet Paul Éluard in the 1930s, was attributed to de Chirico by leading experts, including James Thrall Soby and William Rubin. More recently that attribution has been challenged, and some authorities now assign it to fellow Surrealist Óscar Domínquez. Éluard's daughter, Cécile Grindel, believes it was painted by her father's close friend, the German Surrealist Max Ernst. The Surrealists enjoyed confounding reality by disorienting viewers through visual paradoxes and games of irrational role reversal, which in some cases involved painting compositions in the style of their colleagues. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Arendsee, M., and M. Steinman-Arendsee. "Take the CAN disability aesthetics tour, at the Cleveland Museum of art." CAN Journal (Winter 2019/20): 76-87. page number: Mentioned: p. 86 url: --- IMAGES