Object Information

René Magritte
Belgian, 1898–1967

The Eye, 1932/35

Oil on canvas
10 1/2 x 10 x 2 1/2 in. (27 x 24.8 x 14.4 cm)
none
Through prior gift of Arthur Keating, 1989.53

© 2008 C. Herscovici, London / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Exhibition, Publication and Ownership Histories

Exhibition History

London, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Rene Magritte, May 21–August 2, 1992, no. 155; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 9–November 22, 1992, Houston, Menil Collection, December 15, 1992–February 21, 1993, and Art Institute of Chicago, March 16–May 30, 1993.

Publication History

Amei Wallach, “An Eye-Catching Magritte,” New York Newsday, September 11, 1992, p. 94.

David Sylvester, Magritte: The Silence of the World (Houston and New York, 1992), pp. 193-94, 337.

David Sylvester, ed., René Magritte, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2 (Houston and London, 1993), p. 432, fig. 686.

M. Therese Southgate, “The Cover,” Journal of the American Medical Association 272, no. 2 (13 July 1994), p. 90 (ill.).

Ownership History

Paul Gustave Van Hecke (1887-1977), purchased from the artist by 1944–c. 1950 [photograph by Lee Miller of the object in Van Hecke home, 1944, and provenance card, c. 1987, from The Menil Collection Archives]; given by him to private collection, Belgium, c. 1950–until probably 1987 [letter from Bernard Giron, 4 May 2003, in curatorial file]. Private collection, New York, c. 1987 [provenance card, c. 1987, from The Menil Collection Archives]. Timothy Baum, New York; sold by him to the Art Institute, 1989.