Giorgio de Chirico and the Surrealists

“What is especially needed is great sensitivity: to look upon everything in the world as enigma. To live in the world as an immense museum of strange things.” — Giorgio de Chirico

Giorgio de Chirico is best known for his metaphysical paintings—strange piazzas with statues that project long shadows, with trains that seem to go somewhere and at the same time nowhere. Others of his metaphysical works feature an assemblage of disconnected objects—sculpted heads, gloves, measuring tools, and mannequins. It is in this vein that the Surrealists admired and bought his canvases. They thought of him as the precursor of Surrealism.

André Breton, a writer and poet who led the Surrealist movement, had been corresponding with de Chirico since 1921, but it was in Paris at the end of 1924 that the two actually met. This great professional collaboration and friendship came to an abrupt end in 1926. Breton declared publicly that de Chirico had died as an artist in 1918. The Surrealists viewed de Chirico’s turn toward classical painting—which brought to mind the Renaissance and the Baroque Period—as inferior to the groundbreaking metaphysical compositions of the preceding years.

Giorgio de Chirico Portrait of Matilde Castelfranco 1921

Giorgio de Chirico Portrait of Signora 1921

Giorgio de Chirico Head of San Giovanni 1921

Giorgio de Chirico Self Portrait with Mother 1922

Giorgio de Chirico Self Portrait with Head of Medusa 1923

Giorgio de Chirico Ulisse (Self Portrait) 1924

Giorgio de Chirico Self Portrait 1925

Although it was true that de Chirico produced works obviously influenced by the old masters, he continued throughout his career to revisit metaphysical subjects where the past and the present meet. His later oeuvre “mourns the modern world” and sees it as “a ruin found by archaeologists.”

Giorgio de Chirico The Family of the Painter 1926

Giorgio de Chirico My room in Olympius1927

Giorgio de Chirico Thebes 1928

Giorgio de Chirico Makers of Trophies1926 - 28

Giorgio de Chirico Combat of Gladiators1927

Giorgio de Chirico Ancient Horses 1927

In an ironic twist, the Surrealists' public criticism of de Chirico’s later artistic production did not stop them from privately acquiring his work. They continued to collect his paintings executed in both the metaphysical and neoclassical styles. André Breton commissioned duplicates of earlier works, while Paul and Gala Éluard purchased paintings done in a traditional style, including Ulisse of 1924.

The works of Giorgio de Chirico shown in this post were seen in Torino in November 2024 at the Museo di Arti Decorative Accorsi-Ometto. The show, entitled Giorgio de Chirico: 1924, spans his career from 1921 to 1928. The year 1924 was when Surrealism was founded.