The Blank Signature

1965

René Magritte

Artist, Belgian, 1898 - 1967

A woman wearing a mauve-pink dress rides a horse through a wooded landscape with tall, thin, pole-like trees in this vertical painting. However, the bodies of the horse and rider are shown in front of some of the trees and disappear behind others, confusing the eye. The woman has pale skin and wears a brimless cap the same color as her dress over blond hair. She rides erect, holding the reins to the reddish bay-brown horse, which walks with the back left and front right hooves raised. The tree trunks are painted with sage and forest-green vertical dashes against moss green. The leafy canopies are painted with dabs of grass green. The forest in the background is indicated with short strokes of spring, sage, and mint green. The grass below is created with dashes of emerald green and coffee brown against a golden-tan background. Because of the way the horse and rider are unpredictably covered by trees, our eye constantly shifts back and forth, trying to figure out if the rider is close to us or set farther back in the forest.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon

  • Dimensions

    overall: 81.3 x 65.1 cm (32 x 25 5/8 in.)
    framed: 98.4 x 82.5 x 4.4 cm (38 3/4 x 32 1/2 x 1 3/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1985.64.24

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(Galérie Alexandre Iolas, Paris); sold 1966 to Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Upperville, VA; gift 1985 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • René Magritte, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts; Art Institute of Chicago; Pasadena Art Museum; University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley, 1965-1966, no. 82, repro.

1979

  • 19th and 20th Century French Painting from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1979 (long term exhibition), checklist no. 46.

1986

  • Gifts to the Nation: Selected Acquisitions from the Collections of Mr. and Mrs. Paul Mellon, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1986, unnumbered checklist, repro.

1987

  • René Magritte, Fondation de l'Hermitage, Lausanne, 1987, no. 118, repro.

  • René Magritte, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, Munich, 1987-1988, no. 129, repro.

1992

  • Magritte, The Hayward Gallery, London; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Menil Collection, Houston; Art Institute of Chicago, 1992-1993, no. 125, repro., as Le blanc-seing or Carte blanche.

1996

  • René Magritte, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf, 1996-1997, no. 136, repro., as Carte Blanche [Montreal catalogue], and no. 103, repro., as Le blanc-seing (Die Blankovollmacht) [Düsseldorf catalogue].

1998

  • René Magritte 1898-1967, Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels, 1998, no. 229, repro.

2002

  • René Magritte, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo; Nagoya City Art Museum; Hiroshima Museum of Art, 2002, no. 69, repro.

2003

  • Magritte, Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, 2003, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2005

  • René Magritte. The Key to Dreams (René Magritte. Der Schlüssel der Träume), Kunstforum Wien, Vienna; Fondation Beyeler, Basel, 2005, no. 96, repro.

2009

  • Visual Deception, Nagoya City Art Museum; The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe, 2009, no. 105, repro.

2010

  • El mundo invisible de René Magritte [The Invisible World of René Magritte], Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 2010, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2014

  • Visual Deception, II: into the Future, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, Tokyo; Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art, Kobe; Nagoya City Art Museum, 2014-2015, no. 70, repro.

2015

  • René Magritte: The Search for the Absolute, The National Art Center, Tokyo; Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, 2015, no. 123, repro.

2016

  • Magritte, la trahison des images, Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, 2016-2017, unnumbered catalogue, repro.

2018

  • Videogames: Design/Play/Disrupt, Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2018-2019.

2021

  • La Máquina Magritte, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid; Fundación "la Caixa," Barcelona, Barcelona, 2021 - 2022, no. 74, repro.

Bibliography

1989

  • Strick, Jeremy. Twentieth Century Painting and Sculpture: Selections for the Tenth Anniversary of the East Building. Washington, D.C., 1989: 102, repro. 103.

1998

  • Gilbert, Rita. Living with Art. 5th ed. New York, 1998: fig. 9.

Inscriptions

lower right: Magritte; across top reverse: Le Blanc Seing / 1965

Wikidata ID

Q2409478

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