In addition
to fantastic elements, he displayed a mordant wit, creating surrealist
versions of famous paintings, as in Madame Récamier de David (1949,
private collection), in which an elaborate coffin is substituted
for the reclining woman in the famous portrait by Jacques Louis
David.
Magritte's work was first shown in the United States in New York
City in 1936 and again in that city in two retrospectives, one
at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965 (U.S. tour, 1966), and the
other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992. Magritte continued
to work until his health began to fail in 1965. Rene Magritte
died on August 15, 1967.
