id: 156567
accession number: 1992.274
share license status: Copyrighted
url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.274
updated: 2023-03-28 15:22:16.929000
The Human Condition, 1945. René Magritte (Belgian, 1898–1967). Watercolor, crayon over graphite, ink and gouache; sheet: 42.2 x 32.2 cm (16 5/8 x 12 11/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Lockwood Thompson 1992.274 © C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
title: The Human Condition
title in original language:
series:
series in original language:
creation date: 1945
creation date earliest: 1945
creation date latest: 1945
current location:
creditline: Bequest of Lockwood Thompson
copyright: © C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
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culture: Belgium, 20th century
technique: watercolor, crayon over graphite, ink and gouache
department: Drawings
collection: DR - Belgian
type: Drawing
find spot:
catalogue raisonne:
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CREATORS
* René Magritte (Belgian, 1898–1967) - artist
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measurements: Sheet: 42.2 x 32.2 cm (16 5/8 x 12 11/16 in.)
state of the work:
edition of the work:
support materials:
inscriptions:
inscription: signed, at lower right, in black ink: Magritte; inscribed, on verso, in pencil: La Condition Humaine
translation:
remark:
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CURRENT EXHIBITIONS
title: Selected Acquisitions
opening date: 1993-02-09T05:00:00
Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).
title: René Magritte
opening date: 1996-06-20T04:00:00
René Magritte. Montréal Museum of Fine Arts (organizer) (June 20-October 27, 1996).
title: Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art
opening date: 2006-05-27T00:00:00
Monet to Dalí: Modern Masters from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 21, 2007-January 13, 2008).
title: The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art
opening date: 2011-05-28T00:00:00
The Colour of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (organizer) (May 28-October 2, 2011).
title: Stories From Storage
opening date: 2021-02-07T05:00:00
Stories From Storage. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 7-May 16, 2021).
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LEGACY EXHIBITIONS
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PROVENANCE
Lockwood Thompson, Cleveland, OH, bequeathed to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: ?-1992
footnotes:
citations:
Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
date: 1992-
footnotes:
citations:
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fun fact:
During World War II, when this drawing was made, René Magritte focused on beauty in contrast to the chaos of the time and favored calm scenes and light colors in his work.
digital description:
This drawing belongs to a series in which René Magritte depicted an easel before a window. Each features a canvas that exactly replicates the landscape beyond it, inviting questions about the boundaries between art and reality. Magritte juxtaposed a highly realistic style and unexpected imagery to evoke the subconscious and question the experience of time and space. Of his Human Condition series, he wrote that he wanted to place the viewer “inside the room in the picture and, at the same time, conceptually outside in the real landscape.”
wall description:
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RELATED WORKS
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CITATIONS
Ottinger, Didier. Magritte. Exh. Cat. Montreal: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1996.
page number: Mentioned and reproduced: p. 146
url:
Ades, Dawn. The Color of My Dreams: The Surrealist Revolution in Art. Exh. Cat. Vancouver: Vancouver Art Gallery, 2011.
page number: Mentioned: p. 325; Reproduced: p. 311
url:
Cassin, Barbara. "The Painter-King." In Magritte: The Treachery of Images. Didier Ottinger, ed., 114-141. Exh. Cat. Munich: Prestel, 2017.
page number: Reproduced and mentioned: p. 119.
url:
Salsbury, Britany. “Open Windows.” Cleveland Art: Cleveland Museum of Art Members Magazine 61, no. 1 (Winter 2021): 26.
page number: Reproduced and Mentioned: P. 26.
url:
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IMAGES