Giorgio de Chirico *

(Volos, Greece 1888–1978 Rome)
Chevaux devant la mer (Due cavalli), c. 1927, signed, oil on canvas, 130.2 x 97.1 cm, framed

This work is being offered for sale from an offsite location and is not in Dorotheum, Vienna. The confirmation for the export permission is still pending. This sale is subject to the condition subsequent of the completion of a lawful transport of the object into Austria.

Provenance:
Acquired from the artist in 1928 by A. D. Mouradian (1892–1974) London/Paris (probably through Paul Guillaume)
Richard Wyndham Collection (1896–1948), (acquired from the above in February 1929)
Aubrey Baring Collection (1912–1987), United Kingdom
Mayor Gallery, London
Collection Robert Philipp Wyndham Adeane (1905–1979), London, until at least 1959
Adams Gallery, London
Collection Marcus Wickham- Boyton (1904–1989), London
Galleria Daverio, Milan
Galerie Van Leer, Paris
Sale, Sotheby’s Parke-Bernet, 21 May 1975, lot 142
Sale, Sotheby’s London 30 June 1982, lot 58
Sale, Sotheby’s London, 21 October 1999, lot 8
European Private Collection

Exhibited:
London, First Exhibition in England of Paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, Arthur Tooths & Sons, 10 October – 3 November 1928

Literature:
London, Dictionnaire biographique des Artistes Contemporaines, 1930
“Die Neue Stadt”, 1932, n. 104, no. 12 with ill
Bolaffi Arte, Year VI, June – July 1975, with ill.
M. Fagiolo dell’Arco and P. Baldacci, Giorgio de Chirico. Paris – 1924–1929, Milan, 1982, p. 521, n. 145 with ill.
C. B. Sakraischik, Catalogo Generale Giorgio de Chirico, vol. VII, opere dal 1908 al 1930, Milan, 1987, no. 432 with ill.
Savinio. Gli anni di Parigi. Dipinti 1927–1932, Electa, Milan 1999, p. 220 with ill.

Giorgio de Chirico is one of the most emblematic figures of 20th-century art. As the founder of Metaphysical painting, his work profoundly influenced the Surrealists and anticipated many key elements of contemporary visual language. Since the 1910s, with his enigmatic urban landscapes, classical statues, and suspended atmospheres, de Chirico created a pictorial universe in which time seems to stand still and objects are imbued with an aura of mystery.

Alongside his strictly metaphysical phase, de Chirico developed a more descriptive and narrative language, drawing on academic motifs and subjects rooted in the Italian and European painting tradition. During this phase, horses, along with ancient ruins and marine landscapes, become central to a visionary, theatrical style of painting – simultaneously ancient and modern.

In Chevaux devant la mer, de Chirico stages two monumental horses set within a timeless, seaside landscape populated by classical ruins, broken columns, and architectural remnants that evoke a dreamlike and otherworldly atmosphere. The painting stands out for its subtle yet refined palette, balanced composition, and the evocative power of its subjects.

The white horse in the foreground, sculpted with remarkable precision in a solemn, regal pose, dominates the scene like a living statue. Behind it, a second horse in rosy tones stands in partial shadow, contributing to the spatial depth of the composition. The contrast between the two figures heightens the sense of symmetry and theatricality in a silent landscape scattered with fluted columns and ruins – symbols of a lost world that remains ever-present in the artist’s imagination.

The soft lighting and fluid brushwork create a dreamlike, almost lunar atmosphere, fully in line with de Chirico’s metaphysical vision. The ruins in the background, rendered with a thick, tactile application of paint, further enrich a composition where classical memory and a sense of mystery are tightly interwoven. A large-scale work of striking scenographic impact, Chevaux devant la mer is a powerful example of the artist’s return to the themes that made his painting so unique: ideal beauty, the sense of the eternal, and the enigma of time.

This painting reveals a striking poetic affinity with René Magritte’s Météores. In both compositions, equestrian figures set against a marine or metaphysical landscape embody a tension between stillness and mystery, reality and vision. The empty horizon, the rarefied light, and the pervasive silence evoke that enigmatic atmosphere which de Chirico had theorized as the “revelation of mystery within the everyday,” a concept that became a crucial point of reference for the Surrealist generation.
De Chirico was, in fact, acknowledged by André Breton and his circle as the true forerunner of Surrealism. His Metaphysical painting, developed more than a decade before the movement formally emerged, offered the Surrealists a model of imaginative freedom and a suspension of logical meaning. His deserted squares, mannequins, and dreamlike or evocative landscapes demonstrated that painting could serve as a means of exploring the unconscious and the enigmatic – opening the way to that poetics of ambiguity and the absurd that Magritte, in particular, would later reinterpret with his own distinctive irony and detachment.

England played a crucial role in the appreciation of Giorgio de Chirico’s art.

The painting Chevaux devant la mer offers an exemplary case in this regard, having passed through several prestigious English collections over the years, including the Robert Philip Wyndham Adeane Collection, the Aubrey Baring Collection, and others.

This succession of distinguished provenances likely began with the inclusion of the work in the historic exhibition First Exhibition in England of Paintings by Giorgio de Chirico, held at Arthur Tooth & Sons from October 10 to November 3, 1928. This important event bears witness to the intense and enduring dialogue between the artist and the British art scene, which devoted no fewer than eighty-five exhibitions to him over the course of his career – clear evidence of England’s fundamental role in his international recognition.

The English exhibition was reviewed by Frank Rutter in the following terms:

“We may admire many things in de Chirico’s paintings – his plastic construction, his sense of tactile values, the sober precision and firmness of his lines – but we shall have a totally false idea of his work if, while admiring the discernment of his eye and the obedience of his hand, we forget the part played by the mind that directs them. In de Chirico’s work there is always the expression of an idea; it is the philosophical content of his art that secures him a place apart, even among the most vigorous of contemporary artists.”