Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)

Le trouble de thaumaturge (The Turmoil of Miracle-Working)

Details

Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)
Le trouble de thaumaturge (The Turmoil of Miracle-Working)
signed and dated 'G. de Chirico 1926' (on the reverse)
oil on canvas
32 x 24 in. (81.2 x 61 cm.)
Painted in 1926

Provenance

Paul Guillaume, Paris
Ignacio Acquarone, Concordia, Entre Rios
Pietro Zuffi, Buenos Aires
Galera Bonino, Buenos Aires
Acquired from the above by the present owners, May 1977

Literature

G. Ribemont-Dessaignes, "Giorgio de Chirico," Documents, 1930, pp. 336-345, no. 6.
M. Fagiolo dell'Arco and P. Baldacci, Giorgio de Chirico, Parigi 1924-1929, Milan, 1982, p. 504, no. 86 (illustrated).

Exhibited

Paris, Galerie Paul Guillaume, Exposition Giorgio de Chirico, June 1926, no. 38.
New York, Valentine Gallery, January-February 1928, no. 8.
Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Coleccion Acquarone: Pintura Italiana Contemporanea - en Commemoracion del VII Centenario de Dante, July-August 1965, no. 67 (illustrated).

Lot Essay

Despite the efforts of Andr Breton and others to persuade de Chirico not to abandon Surrealism in favor of Neo-Classicism, in 1925 the painter embarked on a series of works heavily influenced by Sir James George Frazer's travel account of classical Greece, published in French in 1923 as Sur les Traces de Pausanias. By incorporating architectural imagery with the seated faceless mannequins (omnipresent in early works), Le trouble de thaumaturge represents a bridge between the mystical early works and the metaphysical paintings that were to preoccupy de Chirico for much of the rest of his life.