Time Transfixed

1938

René Magritte
Belgian, 1898–1967

Impressed by René Magritte’s submissions to the 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition, the collector Edward James invited the artist to paint canvases for the ballroom of his London home. In response, Magritte conceived On the Threshold of Liberty (in the collection of the Art Institute) and his now-famous Time Transfixed. The artist later explained this picture: “I decided to paint the image of a locomotive… . In order for its mystery to be evoked, another immediately familiar image without mystery—the image of a dining room fireplace—was joined.” The surprising juxtaposition and scale of unrelated elements, heightened by Magritte’s precise realism, gives the picture its perplexity and allure. The artist transformed the stovepipe of a coal-burning stove into a charging locomotive, situating the train in a fireplace vent so that it appears to be emerging from a railway tunnel. Magritte was unhappy with the English translation of the original French, La durée poignardé, which literally means “ongoing time stabbed by a dagger.” He hoped that the painting 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. Ironically, James installed it over his fireplace instead.

Status: On View, Gallery 396
Department: Modern Art

Artist: René Magritte
Title: Time Transfixed
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.: 1938
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed, l.r.: "Magritte"
Dimensions: 147 × 98.7 cm (57 7/8 × 38 7/8 in.)
Credit Line: Joseph Winterbotham Collection
Reference Number: 1970.426
Copyright: © 2018 C. Herscovici, London / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

L’Invention collective, no. 1 (Feb. 1940), 4 (ill.).
Saturday Book v. 19 (1959), 284 (ill.).
James Thrall Soby, René Magritte, exh. cat. (New York, 1965), 37 (ill.).
Patrick Waldberg, René Magritte, translated by Austryn Wainhouse (Brussels, 1965), 37 (ill.).
The Collections of the Tate Gallery (London, 1967), 162.
David Sylvester, Magritte, exh. cat. (London: Arts Council of Great Britain, 1969), 7, 81 (ill.).
Simon Watson Taylor, “René Magritte and André Breton,” Studio International, CLXXVII (Feb. 1969), 69 (ill.).
Burlington Magazine, CXII (Sept. 1970), lxxviii (ill.).
Arts Magazine, CXII (Sept. 1970), ill.
“So Real Surrealism,” The Detroit News, Jan. 12, 1971, (ill.).
Anne D’Harnoncourt, “Acquisitions of Modern Art by Museums,” Burlington Magazine, CXIV (Feb. 1972), 123 (ill.).
José Vovelle, Le Surrealisme en Belgique (Brussels, 1972), 116 (ill.).
A. M. Hammacher, René Magritte, translated by James Brockway (New York, 1973), 114 (ill.).
Sarah Whitfield, Magritte, exh. cat. (London: South Bank Centre, 1992), no. 155.
David Sylvester and Sarah Whitfield, René Magritte: Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2 (Houston: The Menil Foundation, 1993).
Gisèle Ollinger-Zinque and Frederik Leen, René Magritte, exh. cat. (Ghent: Ludion Press; New York: Distributed by H.N. Abrams, 1998), 136, cat. 122, 137 (color ill.).
Werner Spies, La Revolution Surrealiste, exh. cat. (Paris: Centre Pompidou, 2002), 267 (color ill.), 437.
Stephanie Barron, Michel Draguet, Sara Cochran, and Richard Armstrong, René Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images, exh. cat. (Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Ghent: Ludion, 2006), 17, 18, 21, 57,143, 146 (color ill.), 147, 150, 152, 177, 184, 197.
Christoph Grunrmberg and Darren Pih, eds., exh. cat. (Vienna: Albertina Publishing, 2012), 8, ill. 232, ill. 233, ill. 235, 259.
Christoph Grunenberg and Darren Pih, eds., Magritte A to Z, exh. cat. (London: Tate Publishing, 2012), 58 (color ill.), 59.
Anne Umland, Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, ed. exh. cat. (New York: Museum of Modern Art, 2013), 223, no.126 (color ill).
Stephanie D’Alessandro and Renée DeVoe Mertz, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Art at the Art Institute of Chicago (Chicago: The Art Institute of Chicago, 2014), 125 (color ill.).
Didier Ottinger, Magritte : La trahison des images, exh. cat. (Centre Pompidou, 2016), 39 (color ill.); 221.
Stephanie D’Alessandro and Matthew Gale, Surrealism Beyond Borders, exh. cat. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2021), 223, fig. 203 (color ill.), as La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed).
Michael Draguet and Michelangelo van Meerten, Track to Modernity, exh. cat. (Brussels: Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium; Brussels: EUROPALIA Arts Festival; Veurne: Hannibal, 2021), 66, fig. 32 (color ill.), 67-68.

Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, René Magritte, May 13–24, 1939, cat. 2.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Réne Magritte, Dec. 15, 1965–Feb. 27, 1966, no. 38; Waltham, MA, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Apr. 3–May 1, 1966; Art Institute of Chicago, May 30–July 3, 1966; Pasadena, Art Museum, Aug. 1–Sept. 4, 1966; Berkeley, University Art Museum, Oct. 1–Nov. 1, 1966.
London, Tate Gallery, René Magritte, Feb. 14–Apr. 2, 1969, cat. 62.
London, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Rene Magritte, May 19–Aug. 2, 1992; New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Sept. 9–Nov. 22, 1992; Houston, Menil Collection, Dec. 15, 1992–Feb. 21, 1993; Art Institute of Chicago, Mar. 16–May 30, 1993.
Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique, Réne Magritte, Mar. 6–June 28, 1998, cat. 122.
Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, La Revolution Surrealiste, Feb. 27–June 24, 2003, no cat. no.; Dusseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfallen, July 20–Nov. 24, 2002.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, René Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images, Nov. 19, 2006–Mar. 4, 2007, no cat. no.
Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Art in the Age of Steam: Europe, America and the Railway, 1830–1960, Sept. 13, 2008–Jan. 18, 2009.
Liverpool, Tate Liverpool, René Magritte: The Pleasure Principle, June 24-Oct. 16, 2011, no cat. no.; Vienna, Albertina, Nov. 9, 2011-Feb. 26, 2012.
New York, Museum of Modern Art, Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, Sept. 28, 2013-Jan. 12, 2014, no. 126; Houston, The Menil Collection, Feb. 14-June 1, 2014, Art Institute of Chicsgo, June 24-Oct. 13, 2014.
Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Magritte, la trahison des images, Sept. 21, 2016–Jan. 23, 2017, no cat. no., Frankfurt, Schirn Kunsthalle, Feb. 10–June 5, 2017 (Paris only).
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Surrealism Beyond Borders, Oct. 11, 2021–Jan. 30, 2022, fig. 203, as La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed).; London, Tate Modern, Feb. 25-Aug. 29,. 2022,

The artist; sold to Edward James, London, by July 12, 1939 [letter from the artist to Edward James, July 12, 1939, Edward James Foundation, copy in curatorial file]; sold, Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, Oct. 28, 1970, lot 50, to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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Educator Resource Packet: Time Transfixed by René Magritte

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