A poster titled 'Le vrai visage de Rex,' considered the only explicitly political work by René Magritte, has joined the Magritte Museum collections in Brussels, Belgium’s Royal Museums of Fine Arts announced on Monday.
The piece was put up for sale by Arenberg Auctions last October and acquired by Charly Herscovici, heir to René Magritte’s intellectual property rights and founder of the Magritte Foundation.
After minor restoration work, the poster is now part of the museum’s permanent exhibition. Herscovici said in a press release that he felt it was important for this unique aspect of Magritte’s work to be accessible to the public. He purchased the piece specifically to deposit it at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, where it is displayed in the Magritte Museum.
This anti-fascist poster, created in 1936 by the Belgian surrealist painter known for his iconic bowler hat, was commissioned by the Belgian branch of the Committee of Intellectual Vigilance Against Fascism. It depicts Léon Degrelle, leader of the far-right Rex party, gazing into a mirror where Adolf Hitler’s face is reflected back.
During the 1930s, the lithograph was printed in several thousand copies, but nearly the entire run was destroyed due to fears of Nazi reprisals. Only two known copies remain: the one now exhibited at the Magritte Museum and another held by the Archives of the City of Brussels.
