Provenance
Purchased from the artist by Claude Spaak, Choisel, France; purchased 1987 through (L. & R. Entwhistle & Co., London) by NGA.
Accession Number
1987.55.1
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 100 x 81 x 1.6 cm (39 3/8 x 31 7/8 x 5/8 in.) | framed: 116.2 × 96.5 × 5.72 cm (45 3/4 × 38 × 2 1/4 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of the Collectors Committee
Tags
Painting Early Modern (1901–1950) Oil Painting Canvas Belgian Color: Orange Color: Teal
Background & Context
Background Story
René Magritte (1898-1967) painted La condition humaine (The Human Condition) in 1933, depicting an easel painting standing in front of a window, on which is painted a view that exactly continues the landscape visible through the window. The painting is a visual demonstration of the philosophical problem that Magritte explored throughout his career: the relationship between representation and reality, between the image and the thing it represents. The canvas on the easel is both a representation of the landscape and an object in the real world that it represents, creating a paradox that challenges the viewer's ability to distinguish between what is real and what is represented.
Cultural Impact
La condition humaine is one of Magritte's most philosophically important paintings because it makes tangible the problem of representation that had concerned philosophers since Plato. The canvas that exactly continues the landscape through the window is both a representation and an object in the world it represents—a paradox that has been discussed by philosophers from Foucault to Podro and has become one of the most cited examples in the philosophical literature on representation. The painting's influence extends far beyond art into philosophy, semiotics, and cognitive science.
Why It Matters
La condition humaine is Magritte's most philosophically rigorous painting: an easel painting that exactly continues the landscape through the window, creating a paradox in which representation and reality are indistinguishable. The 1933 painting challenges the viewer's ability to separate the image from the thing it represents—a problem that has been discussed by philosophers since Plato.
