L’Homme de Pierre (1979)

rtist: René Magritte
Title: L’Homme de Pierre (The Stone Man)
Series: La Philosophie de la Peinture
Year: 1979 (posthumous)
Medium: Lithograph in colours after paintings by the artist
Dimensions: 73.6 × 53 cm (28 7/8 × 20 7/8 in)
Edition: XL (40) — Roman numerals, signed by Georgette Magritte
Signature: Signed “Magritte” by Georgette Magritte lower right; printed signature of the artist in plate
Type: Limited edition lithograph — posthumous authorised edition

Description:

L’Homme de Pierre (1979) — “The Stone Man” — is one of the most sombre and psychologically arresting images in Magritte’s visual repertoire: two bowler-hatted men stand among scattered rocks before a vast striated cliff face, their bodies rendered in the same grey-brown stone texture as the geological world surrounding them. One faces away entirely — his back to the viewer, his coat and hat as anonymous as always — while the second turns slightly in profile, clutching a rock to his chest with both arms, as if carrying the very substance of his own petrification. The cliff behind them descends in vertical striations of ochre and grey; the ground is littered with stones; the entire world is stone.

The bowler-hatted man is Magritte’s most personal and most universal figure — simultaneously the artist himself, every bourgeois, and no one in particular — and here that anonymity is taken to its logical extreme: the figures are not merely unrecognisable, they are literally becoming the landscape, their human form indistinguishable in texture and colour from the geological matter around them. The image belongs to Magritte’s sustained meditation on the relationship between human beings and the objects of the world — the unsettling possibility that the boundary between the animate and the inanimate is more permeable than we assume.

From the posthumous series La Philosophie de la Peinture, published in 1979 in a limited Roman numeral edition, signed by Georgette Magritte — the artist’s wife and recognised authenticator of posthumous editions — with the printed signature of the artist in the plate.

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FAQ

Is this an original Magritte lithograph?
Yes — an original lithograph in colours from the posthumous authorised series La Philosophie de la Peinture (1979), signed by Georgette Magritte and numbered in Roman numerals, with the artist’s printed signature in plate.

Why is the work signed by Georgette Magritte?
Georgette Magritte — the artist’s wife — signed posthumous editions on his behalf, a documented and recognised authentication practice consistent with the conventions established by the Comité

What is the edition size?
The edition is in Roman numerals — a designation reserved for the most exclusive category of impressions within a publication.

What does the petrification of the figures signify?
The stone men belong to Magritte’s sustained interrogation of the boundary between the human and the material world — figures who are simultaneously people and geological matter, the distinction between the animate and the inanimate quietly dissolved.

How does this work complement La Corde Sensible?
Both works are from the same 1979 La Philosophie de la Peinture series, the same edition size, the same format, and the same authentication — natural companion pieces for collectors of Magritte’s posthumous lithographic publications.

Do you ship internationally?
Yes — worldwide, with museum-grade flat packaging, full insurance, and shipment tracking.

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