René Magritte The Portrait Brussels 1935

  • MoMA, Floor 5, 517 The Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries

A simply laid-out meal is not as simple as it seems. Each object is rendered with equally sharp focus and pictorial realism, yet any expectation of everyday reality is overturned, above all by the unblinking eye that stares inexplicably from a slice of ham on a plate. The perspective of this still life tilts dramatically toward the surface of the picture plane, as if to confront or perhaps invite the viewer to join the table.

Gallery label from Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938 , September 28, 2013–January 12, 2014 .
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
28 7/8 x 19 7/8" (73.3 x 50.2 cm)
Credit
Gift of Kay Sage Tanguy
Object number
574.1956
Copyright
© 2024 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Department
Painting and Sculpture

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Provenance Research Project

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1935, René Magritte, Brussels.
1935 - 1940, E.L.T. (Edouard Léon Théodore) Mesens (1903-1971), Brussels and London (from 1938), purchased from the artist.
1940 - at least 1949, Gordon Onslow-Ford, San Francisco Bay Area, California, purchased from Mesens.
By 1956, Kay Sage Tanguy, Woodbury, Connecticut.
1956, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, acquired as gift from Kay Sage Tanguy.

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