(after) René Magritte, Surrealist Dream Lithograph Belgian Master Magritte Pencil Signed by Mourlot, 1968

Artist: Rene Magritte (after), Belgian (1898 – 1967)
Title: (from les Enfants Trouvés) Les Claires-Voies d’un Jeune Regard Embaument La Fête d’un Vieil Arbre
Year of original painting: 1952
Year of Lithograph Printing: 1968
Paper: Velin d’Arches
Medium: Lithograph, initialed by hand in pencil ‘F.M’ by the printer Fernand Mourlot signed on the stone “Magritte”.
Image Size: 11 x 19 inches
Frame: 24.63 x 28.63 inches
Limited edition of 350, each sheet was not individually numbered

René François Ghislain Magritte 1898 – 1967, was a Belgian Surrealist artist. He became well known for creating a number of witty and thought-provoking images. Often depicting ordinary objects in an unusual context, his work is known for challenging observers’ preconditioned perceptions of reality. His imagery has influenced pop art, minimalist art and conceptual art.
Magritte’s earliest paintings, which date from about 1915, were Impressionist in style. During 1916–1918, he studied at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, under Constant Montald, but found the instruction uninspiring. The paintings he produced during 1918–1924 were influenced by Futurism and by the figurative Cubism of Jean Metzinger. In 1922, Magritte married Georgette Berger, whom he had met as a child in 1913. Also during 1922, the poet Marcel Lecomte showed Magritte a reproduction of Giorgio de Chirico’s “The Song of Love”. The work brought Magritte to tears; he described this as “one of the most moving moments of my life: my eyes saw thought for the first time.” He moved to Paris where he became friends with André Breton and became involved in the Surrealist group. An illusionistic, dream-like quality is characteristic of Magritte’s version of Surrealism. He became a leading member of the movement, and remained in Paris for three years. In 1929 he exhibited at Goemans Gallery in Paris with Salvador Dali, Jean Arp, de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miro, Picabia, Picasso and Yves Tanguy.
Magritte returned to Brussels in 1930 and resumed working in advertising. In 1936 he had his first solo exhibition in the United States at the Julien Levy Gallery in New York, followed by an exposition at the London Gallery in 1938.
Contemporary artists have been greatly influenced by René Magritte’s stimulating examination of the fickleness of images. Some artists who have been influenced by Magritte’s works include John Baldessari, Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Jan Verdoodt, Martin Kippenberger, Duane Michals, Storm Thorgerson, and Luis Rey.
In France, Magritte’s work has been showcased in a number of retrospective exhibitions, most recently at the Centre Georges Pompidou (2016–2017). In the United States his work has been featured in three retrospective exhibitions: at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992, and again at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2013. An exhibition entitled “The Fifth Season” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art in 2018 focused on the work of his later years.