On the Threshold of Liberty

1. The artist; commissioned by Edward James (1907–1984) for the ballroom of 35 Wimpole St., London, 1937, removed to his estate at West Dean, Sussex, 1939 [Sylvester 1993, p. 239, no. 430]; sold Sotheby’s London, Apr. 12, 1972, no. 49 to Modarco for £55,000. Albert Totah, London, by 1981; sold Sotheby’s, New York, May 21, 1981. Leigh Block (died 1987), Lake Forest IL and Santa Barbara, CA; given to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1988.

Recorded by Art Institute of Chicago.

• London, Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, Rene Magritte, no. 155; traveled to New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, September 9–November 22, 1992; Houston, Menil Collection, December 15, 1992–February 21, 1993; Chicago, Art Institute, March 16–May 30, 1993.
• Paris, Galerie nationale de Jeu de Paume, Magritte, Feb. 11–June 9, 2003, no cat no.
• New York, Museum of Modern Art, Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, September 28, 2013-January 12, 2014, no. 117; traveled to Houston, The Menil Collection, February 14-June 1, 2014, and Chicago, Art Institute, June 24-October 13, 2014.
• Tokyo, National Art Center of Tokyo, René Magritte: The Search for the Absolute, Mar. 25–June 29, 2015; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, July 11–Oct. 12, 2015.

• Kroniek van hedendaagsche kunst en kultuur (Amsterdam), 4th year, no. 19–20 (August 15, 1939), p. 315 (ill.).
• Richard Calvocoressi, Magritte (New York: Phaidon Press, 1984), p. 19.
• David Sylvester, Magritte: The Silence of the World (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992), pp. 242 (ill.), 243.
• David Sylvester, ed., René Magritte: Catalogue Raisonné, v. 2 (Houston: The Menil Foundation, 1993), no. 430, pp. 51-53, 239 (ill.), 240.
• Dawn Ades, "Edward James and Surrealism," in A Surreal Life: Edward James, 1907-1984 (Brighton & Hove: The Royal Pavilion, Libraries & Museums, 1998), p. 81 (ill.).
• Renilde Hammacher, "Edward James and Rene Magritte, Magicians of the Surreal," in Magritte, ed. Daniel Abadie (New York: Distributed Art Publishers, 2003), pp. 123 (ill.), 246.
• Michel Draguet, Magritte (Paris: Editions Hazan, 2003), pp. 98-99 (ill.).
• Patrick Roegiers, Magritte et la photographie (New York: Ludion and D.A.P, 2005), p. 109.
• Michel Draguet and Virginie Devillez, Magritte: His Work, His Museum (Brussels: Musee Magritte, 2009), p. 96.
• Christoph Grunenberg and Darren Pih, eds., Magritte A to Z, exh. cat. (London: Tate Publishing, 2011, pp. 30, 59, 88, 195, 204.
• Stephanie D’Alessandro, “‘Mirrors that become Paintings’: Magritte’s Commissions for Edward James, London, 1937–1938” in Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938, ed. Anne Umland, exh. cat. (New York: The Museum of Modern Art, 2013), pp. 195–210, p. 212 (ill.), no. 117.
• Hubertus Gaßner, "Elective Affinities: René Magritte as the Guest of His Patron Edward James in London," Getty Research Journal, no. 12 (2020), 78, fig. 3 (color ill.), 79, 101, 104, 116.

La durée poignardée (Time Transfixed)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Banquet

Art Institute of Chicago

The Tune and Also the Words

Art Institute of Chicago

Homesickness

Art Institute of Chicago

The Eye

Art Institute of Chicago

Untitled (Woman-Bottle)

Art Institute of Chicago

The Balcony

Art Institute of Chicago

The White Race

Art Institute of Chicago

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