Untitled (Woman-Bottle)

c. 1943

René Magritte
Belgian, 1898–1967

Magritte began painting glass bottles like Untitled (Woman-Bottle) during the German occupation of Belgium in World War II, a moment when traditional fine art materials were suddenly in short supply. Although he had previously experimented with found objects and sculpture, Magritte did not conceive of painting “in the round” until the war years, when discarded bottles—many of his favored Bordeaux, but also port and sherry—proved useful for his playful experiments at the intersection of painting and sculpture. Over his lifetime, Magritte created more than 25 works in this format, many of which he presented to his friends as gifts.

Status: On View, Gallery 396
Department: Modern Art

Artist: René Magritte
Title: Untitled (Woman-Bottle)
Place: Belgium (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: c. 1943
Medium: Oil on glass bottle
Dimensions: 37.7 × 7.6 cm (14 3/4 × 3 in.)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Joseph R. Shapiro
Reference Number: 1996.395
Copyright: © 2018 C. Herscovici, London / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

Eileen Agar, Studio International (Oct. 1967), p. 130.
William Seitz, The Art of Assemblage, exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1961), cat. 139, p. 60 (ill., with stopper).
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Selections from the Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1969), cat. 153 (ill, as Unitlted, ca. 1957).
Dawn Ades, Terry Ann R. Neff, et al., In the Mind’s Eye: Dada and Surrealism (Chicago: Museum of Contemporary Art, 1985), p. 169 (ill., without stopper).
Katherine Kuh and Dennis Adrian, The Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, exh. cat. (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 1985), 80, fig 72, cat. 93 (color ill.), 111, cat. 93, as Untitled (Bottle Nude) c.1946/49, (shown with stopper)
David Sylvester and Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte: Catalogue Raisonné, Volume II: Oil Paintings and Objects, 1931-1948 (Houston, Menil Foundation and Fonds Mercator, 1993), cat. 69 (ill.).

New York, Museum of Modern Art, The Art of Assemblage, Oct. 2–Nov. 12, 1961, cat. 139, as Painted bottle with carved wooden stopper; Dallas, Museum for Contemporary Arts, Jan. 9–Feb. 11, 1962; San Francisco, Museum of Arts, Mar. 5–Apr. 15, 1962.
Chicago, The Renaissance Society, René Magritte, Mar. 1–Apr. 10, 1964, as bottle.
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Selections from the Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, Dec. 20, 1969–Feb. 1, 1970, cat. 153, (as Untitled, ca. 1957).
The Art Institute of Chicago, The Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Randall Shapiro Collection, Feb. 23–Apr. 14, 1985, cat. 93, as Untitled (Bottle Nude) c.1946/49 (shown with stopper).
Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art, Dada and Surrealism in Chicago Collections, Dec. 1, 1984–Jan. 27, 1985, as Untitled (Bottle Nude) (shown without stopper).

The artist; E.L.T. Mesens, Brussels (1903–1971), c. 1946 (this and the following according to Sylvester 1993, cat. 696); sold through the London Gallery to Eileen Agar (1889–1991), London, by the late 1940s; Hanover Gallery, London, late 1950s [Agar 1967]; Richard Feigen Gallery, Chicago; sold to Joseph (1904–1996) and Jory Shapiro (1911–1993), Chicago, by 1961 [according to verso label and letter from William C. Seitz to Joseph R. Shapiro, Feb. 10, 1961; copies in curatorial file]; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1996.

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