{
"data": {
"id": 156568,
"accession_number": "1992.275",
"share_license_status": "Copyrighted",
"tombstone": "Utopia, 1945. Ren\u00e9 Magritte (Belgian, 1898\u20131967). Watercolor and gouache; sheet: 32.1 x 41.8 cm (12 5/8 x 16 7/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Bequest of Lockwood Thompson, 1992.275. \u00a9 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Utopia",
"creation_date": "1945",
"creation_date_earliest": 1945,
"creation_date_latest": 1945,
"artists_tags": [
"male"
],
"culture": [
"Belgium, 20th century"
],
"technique": "watercolor and gouache",
"support_materials": [
{
"description": "beige(1) wove paper",
"watermarks": []
}
],
"department": "Drawings",
"collection": "DR - Belgian",
"type": "Drawing",
"measurements": "Sheet: 32.1 x 41.8 cm (12 5/8 x 16 7/16 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"sheet": {
"height": 0.321,
"height_inch": 12,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.625,
"width": 0.418,
"width_inch": 16,
"width_inch_fraction": 0.4375
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": "\u00a9 C. Herscovici / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York",
"inscriptions": [
{
"inscription": "signed lower left, in black ink: Magritte; verso, center right, in graphite: L'Utopie; center right, in black ink: La Peri [crossed out in graphite] / Magritte 1945; upper right, stamped in purple ink: Galerie / Lou Cosyn / 21 rue de la Madeleine, brux. [set inside an oval border]\r\r\n",
"inscription_translation": null,
"inscription_remark": null,
"sortorder": null
}
],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 304405,
"title": "Surrealism in Perspective",
"description": "Surrealism in Perspective. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (October 3, 1979-January 6, 1980).",
"opening_date": "1979-10-03T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 311552,
"title": "Selected Acquisitions",
"description": "Selected Acquisitions. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 9-April 11, 1993).",
"opening_date": "1993-02-09T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 192019,
"title": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art",
"description": "Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 27-October 17, 2000); The Morgan Library & Museum, New York, NY (May 23-August 19, 2001); Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, TX (October 14, 2001-January 6, 2002).",
"opening_date": "2000-08-27T00:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "(Galerie Lou Cosyn, Brussels, sold to Lockwood Thompson)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1945",
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "Lockwood Thompson [1901-1992], Cleveland, OH, bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1945-1992",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": "1992-",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "Ren\u00e9 Magritte made an almost identical painting around the same time that he completed this drawing.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "Ren\u00e9 Magritte was among the leading figures of the Surrealist movement, whose work emphasized dreams, the subconscious, and a break from reason and logic during the early 20th century. Magritte, in particular, often situated realistic imagery within ridiculous or unusual situations in order to question perception. Here, a rose grows on a rocky island amid a vast sea, set against a blue sky filled with large white clouds. By situating the flower within a barren and inhospitable setting, Magritte invites the viewer to question its purpose and survival. Created as World War II came to an end, the enigmatic image could symbolize a new beginning, although Magritte avoided assigning it a specific meaning.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q79946082"
],
"internet_archive": []
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "exhibited with this title in 1993 CMA exhibition",
"page_number": null,
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Lawrence, Michael G. Surrealism in Perspective. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1979.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 33",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Sylvester, David, ed. Ren\u00e9 Magritte: Catalogue Raisonn\u00e9, Volume IV: Gouaches, Temperas, Watercolours and Papiers Coll\u00e9s 1918-1967. London: Menil Foundation, 1992.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: p. 60, no. 1191",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Turner, Evan H. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1992.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 80, no. 2 (February 1993): 38\u201379.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: p. 73, no. 243",
"url": "http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161388"
},
{
"citation": "DeGrazia, Diane, and Carter E. Foster. Master Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art. Exh. Cat. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2000.",
"page_number": "Mentioned: pp. 266-267, 298; Reproduced: p. 267",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Clarke, Victoria. Flower: Exploring the World in Bloom. London; New York : Phaidon Press Limited, 2020.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: P. 196",
"url": ""
}
],
"catalogue_raisonne": "Sylvester 1191",
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1992.275",
"images": {},
"alternate_images": [],
"creditline": "Bequest of Lockwood Thompson",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": null,
"sketchfab_url": null,
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 156568,
"creators": [
{
"id": 3173,
"description": "Ren\u00e9 Magritte (Belgian, 1898\u20131967)",
"extent": null,
"qualifier": null,
"role": "artist",
"biography": null,
"name_in_original_language": null,
"birth_year": "1898",
"death_year": "1967",
"use_in_caption": true,
"include_extent": false,
"weight": 1
}
],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1992-12-07T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1945,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1945",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "object",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": true,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [
"La p\u00e9ri"
],
"is_highlight": true,
"updated_at": "2026-05-01 06:51:42.209000"
}
}