René Magritte
Belgian, 1898–1967

Time Transfixed, 1938

Oil on canvas
57 7/8 x 38 7/8 in. (147 x 98.7 cm)
Signed, l.r.: "Magritte"
Joseph Winterbotham Collection, 1970.426

Collector Edward James invited the artist to paint three canvases for the ballroom of his London home. In response, the artist conceived a bizarre portrait of James standing in front of his mantelpiece mirror. The following year, he painted Time Transfixed, in which a tiny locomotive emerges incongruously from the vent customarily used for a fireplace stovepipe. Magritte later expressed dissatisfaction with the English translation of this painting's original French title, La Durée poignardé, which literally means “ongoing time stabbed by a dagger.” When Magritte sent the picture to James, he hoped that it would be installed at the bottom of the collector's staircase so that the train would “stab” guests on their way up to the ballroom.

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

New York, Museum of Modern Art, Réne Magritte, December 15, 1965–February 27, 1966, no. 38, p. 37 (ill.); traveled to Waltham, Massachusetts, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, April 3–May 1, 1966; Chicago, Art Institute, May 30–July 3, 1966; Pasadena, Art Museum, August 1–September 4, 1966; Berkley, University Art Museum, October 1–November 1, 1966.

London, Tate Gallery, René Magritte, February 14–April 2, 1969, no. 62, p. 81 (ill.).

London, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Rene Magritte, May 19–August 2, 1992; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 9–November 22, 1992; Houston, Menil Collection, December 15, 1992–February 21, 1993; and Chicago, Art Institute, March 16–May 30, 1993.

Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Réne Magritte, March 6–June 28, 1998.

Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, La Revolution Surrealiste, February 27–June 24, 2003; traveled to Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, July 20–November 24, 2002.

Los Angeles County Museum of Art, René Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images, December 10, 2006–March 4, 2007.

Publication History

James Thrall Soby, René Magritte (New York, 1965), p. 37 (ill.).

Patrick Waldberg, René Magritte, translated by Austryn Wainhouse (Brussels, 1965), p. 37 (ill.).

The Collections of the Tate Gallery (London, 1967), p. 162.

David Sylvester, Magritte (New York and Washington, 1969), pp. 2, 81 (ill.).

Simon Watson Taylor, “René Magritte and André Breton,” Studio International, CLXXVII (February 1969) p. 69 (ill.).

Burlington Magazine, CXII (September 1970), p. lxxviii (ill.).

Arts Magazine, CXII (September 1970), ill.

“So Real Surrealism,” The Detroit News (January 12, 1971), ill.

Anne D’Harnoncourt, “Acquisitions of Modern Art by Museums,” Burlington Magazine, CXIV (February 1972), p. 123 (ill.).

José Vovelle, Le Surrealisme en Belgique (Brussels, 1972), p. 116 (ill.).

A. M. Hammacher, René Magritte, translated by James Brockway (New York, 1973), p. 114 (ill.).

David Sylvester and Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte: Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2 (Houston: The Menil Foundation, 1993).

Ownership History

Edward James, London, until 1970. Purchased by Art Institute, October 1970.