勒內．馬格利特

威利．范．侯夫， 比利時
透過伊瑟．布拉秀特於1968年12月18日購自上述人士，迄今仍由後人收藏

「馬格利特：150件雕塑作品之世界首展」，布魯塞爾，伊瑟．布拉秀特畫廊，1968年，品號146
「雷內．馬格利特回顧展」，東京，國立近代美術館與京都，京都國立近代美術館，1971年， 品號87，圖錄附圖版
「雷內．馬格利特」，東京，東京澀谷藝廊、 富山市，富山縣立美術館、熊本市， 熊本縣立美術館，1982年，品號67
「雷內．馬格利特」，瑞士洛桑， 艾米塔吉基金會， 1987年， 品號75， 圖錄附彩色圖版
「雷內．馬格利特」，慕尼黑， 文化基金會美術館， 1987-88年， 品號72， 圖錄附彩色圖版
「馬格利特1898-1998」，布魯塞爾， 現代美術館， 1998年， 品號296， 圖錄附彩色圖版

〈雷內．馬格利特專號〉，《比利時藝術》月刊，布魯塞爾，1968年1月號， 圖版頁79
傑克．繆瑞斯，《馬格利特》， 巴黎， 1988年， 圖版頁136
大衛．席維斯特爾， 莎拉．懷特菲爾德與麥克．瑞伊彭恩， 《雷內．馬格利特專題目錄》， 第4冊， 倫敦， 1994年， 品號1353， 圖版頁154

In very good condition overall. Gouache on card laid down on board. This work is very slightly light struck. One 5 3/8 inch pencil line along the extreme lower edge of the card. One 2 ¾ inch pencil line along the extreme upper right vertical edge, otherwise fine.
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Magritte first painted this motif of the petrified chair in 1950 (see Sylvester, no. 717). The image was photographed for Garde-Fou in 1950 and appeared with text by Marcel Mariën: "Avant de commencer sa carrière au service de l'homme, la chaise dans son sein repose' (Before beginning its career in the service of mankind, the chair rests in its own bosom)" (quoted in D. Sylvester, op. cit., vol. III, p. 152). The title is taken from Victor Hugo and supposedly was assigned to this motif through a collaborative effort between Magritte and Mariën.

Beginning in the 1950s, Magritte explores a fascination with stones and petrification of objects.  The stone served a literal purpose in Magritte's paintings, as observed by the physicist Albert V. Baez: "The force of gravity, which we dismiss as commonplace in our daily lives, becomes powerful and awesome here. We can step on an ordinary stone any day without giving it a second thought, but the stone in the paintings is compelling.  The artist has made it extraordinary.  It reminds us that all stones are extraordinary."  Magritte's own thoughts on the matter were more philosophical, likening the solid nature of the stone with the mental and physical constitution of the human being.  For others, his petrification paintings were signifiers of time, place and permanence.  "I know of no painting that conveys so totally the sense of a universe in suspense, a universe in which everything is waiting and nothing moves" (Roger Shattuck, "This is not René Magritte," Art Forum, September 1966, p. 35).

According to David Sylvester's catalogue raisonné on the artist, this work was signed and titled on the verso by Magritte in either 1966 or 1967 though this is now mostly obscured by museum exhibition labels on the reverse.