René Magritte

The Belgian artist René Magritte (1890-1967) was a Surrealist painter famous for bizarre images depicted in a realistic manner. Many of his paintings showed a dignified gentleman in a bowler hat.

The Belgian painter René François Chislain Magritte in 1940 praised "that pictorial experience which puts the real world on trial," and his career bore out this aesthetic strategy. Born in Lessines, Belgium, on November 21, 1890, he would become a chief proponent of representational Surrealism. By the age of 12 he began drawing and painting and attended informal art classes in Chatelet, where his family then resided. A chance encounter with a plein-air painter inspired the budding artist.

In 1912 Magritte's mother drowned herself, and the family moved to Charleroi shortly after the tragedy. At age 15, at the local fair, he met a girl named Georgette Berger, and though he would not see her again until 1920 the two eventually married in 1922. In the intervening years Magritte enrolled at the Academie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he studied intermittently from 1916 to 1918. In 1919, in association with several young artists, poets, and musicians in Brussels, he helped publish the review Au Volant! That same year he exhibited his first canvas, Three Women, a Cubistic picture.

The early 1920s found Magritte using a generally abstract idiom based on Cubo-Futurist principles. After brief military service in 1921 and his marriage to Georgette the following year, he supported himself by working in a wallpaper factory, as well as by designing posters. Around this time Magritte saw a reproduction of Giorgio de Chirico's painting The Song of Love (1914), and the image, illustrated in the Roman periodical Valori Plastici, is said to have moved him to tears. The strange juxtaposition of objects in de Chirico's work revealed to Magritte the poetic possibilities of painting, and thereafter his pictures challenged expectations.

Magritte's pictures of the early 1920s already explored thematic ambiguity, and by the mid-1920s he and E. L. T. Mesens helped form a Belgian Surrealist group that included Paul Nougé, Camille Goemans, and Louis Scutenaire, an early chronicler of Magritte's art. The Surrealists, who included writers and composers too, overturned conventional notions by exercising their unconscious impulses for creative effect, and Magritte's paintings often took on a bizarre, dream-like quality. Working at a rapid rate, he investigated these new non-formalist concerns. One subject, The Lost Jockey, typically explored in a sequence of pictures (sometimes collage), contrasted oversized balusters with a horse and rider. Magritte's first one-man show, in Brussels in 1927, was a critical failure, and that year he moved to the Surrealist center, Paris, befriending poet Paul Eluard and André Breton, spokesman for the movement.

Breton released his two Surrealist manifestoes in 1924 and 1929, and between these years the movement was perhaps at its most exuberant. One main inspirational source for the Surrealists was the literature of Isidore Ducasse, alias the Comte de Lautréamont, who around 1870 had written that nothing is "as beautiful a…. the chance encounter of a sewing machine and an umbrella on a dissecting table." Later, in 1948, Magritte illustrated Lautréamont's complete works with 77 drawings which rivaled the text in strangeness.

The images and techniques of the movies were an influence on Magritte, especially the French film anti-hero Fantômas, a master of crime and disguise. Many of Magritte's works at this time, in keeping with Surrealist practices, disclosed a sinister side of human personality, as in Pleasure (1926) or The Threatened Assassin (1926-1927). In 1930 Magritte, never much one for political endeavors, broke with the Surrealists in a dispute over their dogmatic aims, burned most of his possessions associated with this time in his life, and returned to his native Brussels.

The following decade Magritte developed his mature style, first introduced in 1925. He was represented at major international exhibitions of Surrealist art and wrote on art's potential, though he offered no explanations—choosing instead to maintain its mysterious aura. Though an admirer of Max Ernst, he did not adopt that artist's novel methods of rubbing and blotting. He also persisted with his painstakingly literal approach. He took care to distinguish between an object and its image. Magritte had first presented this lesson in his teasing The Use of Words I (1928-1929), in which the inscription "this is not a pipe" is written beneath a painted image of one.

This semantic investigation of the connection between language and visual source is evident in his Key of Dreams series of the 1930s in which objects depicted do not necessarily conform with the labels below them. Contextual correspondence and associative meaning are at the heart of Magritte's pursuits, and around 1936 he reversed his (and the general Surrealist) tact by exploring similar rather than dissimilar things.

Magritte's definitive work also shows an interest in the coexistence of opposite states of being. Interior is confused with exterior (The Human Condition I, 1933), night fuses with day (The Empire of Lights, 1954), and a human face is comprised of body parts (The Rape, 1945). Though Magritte's method is one of utmost clarity, he confounds imagined and "real identities," commenting on the relativity of perception.

In the 1940s Magritte experimented briefly with Impressionism (1940-1945) and a brash Fauve-inspired style (1948) dubbed "Vache" (literally, cow). Thus, working from his home in Brussels, he forever kept the critics off guard. His sedate bourgeois way of life masked his creative unpredictability. At times he resembled the staid bowler-hatted gentlemen who peopled many of his paintings.

Magritte minimized the importance of his achievements: "… life obliges me to do something so I paint." Yet he raised profound aesthetic issues of much importance for future generations, including the Pop artists of the 1960s. The fantastic content of his art had great appeal for the general public and became widely disseminated in commercial advertising and posters in the 1960s and 1970s. Magritte, who died in Brussels on August 15, 1967, created a world of enchantment with far-reaching consequences.

Further Reading

William Rubin, Dada, Surrealism and Their Heritage (1967) locates Magritte in art history and is a fine introduction to Surrealism. Jose Vovelle, Le Surréalisme en Belgique (1972, in French), is a comprehensive look at Surrealism in Belgium. Numerous monographs on the artist exist, among these Suzi Gablik, Magritte (1970, reprint 1985) and James Thrall Soby, René Magritte (1965). □

Magritte, René (1898–1967). Belgian painter, sculptor, printmaker, and film-maker, one of the outstanding figures of Surrealism. He was born in Lessines, the son of a prosperous manufacturer (there is some doubt about his exact profession), and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1916–18, following an adolescence clouded by the suicide of his mother in 1912. After initially working in a Cubist-Futurist style, he turned to Surrealism in 1925 under the influence of de Chirico and by the following year had already emerged as a highly individual artist with The Menaced Assassin (MOMA, New York), a picture that displays the startling and disturbing juxtapositions of the ordinary, the strange, and the erotic that were to characterize his work for the rest of his life.

In 1927–30 Magritte lived in Paris, partici pating in Surrealist affairs, but like many others in the movement he fell out with André Breton, and he spent almost all of the rest of his life working in Brussels, where he lived a life of bourgeois regularity (the bowler-hatted figure who often features in his work is to some extent a self-portrait). Apart from a period in the 1940s when he experimented first with pseudo- Impressionist brushwork and then with a Fauve technique, he worked in a precise, scrupulously banal manner (a reminder of his early days of his career when he made his living designing wallpaper and drawing fashion advertisements) and he always remained true to Surrealism. Iconographically he had a repertory of obsessive images that appeared again and again in ordinary but incongruous surroundings. Enormous rocks that float in the air and fishes with human legs are typical leitmotifs. He loved visual puns and paradoxes and repeatedly exploited ambiguities concerning real objects and images of them (many of his works feature paintings within paintings), inside and out-of-doors, day and night. In a number of paintings, for example, he depicted a night scene, or a city street lit only by artificial light, below a clear sunlit sky. He also made Surrealist analogues of famous paintings—for example David's Madame Récamier and Manet's The Balcony—in which he replaced the figures with coffins. Late in life he also made wax sculptures based on such paintings, and some of them were cast in bronze after his death (Madame Récamier, Pompidou Centre, Paris). He also made prints and a few short comic films, using his friends as actors.

Magritte's work was included in many Surrealist exhibitions, but it was not until he was in his 50s that he began to achieve international success and honours; in the 1950s and 1960s he painted several large mural commissions (notably for the Casino at Knocke-leZoute, 1951–3) and he was given major retrospective exhibitions in Brussels (1954), New York (1965), and Rotterdam (1967). By the time of his death his work had had a powerful influence on Pop art, and it has subsequently been widely imitated in advertising. In the fertility of his imagery, the unforced spontaneity of his effects, and not least his rare gift of humour, he was one of the very few natural and inspired Surrealist painters. J. T. Soby summed this up felicitously in his book on the artist (1965) when he wrote: ‘In viewing Magritte's paintings … everything seems proper. And then abruptly the rape of commonsense occurs, usually in broad daylight.’

Magritte, René (b Lessines, 21 Nov. 1898; d Brussels, 15 Aug. 1967). Belgian painter, one of the leading exponents of Surrealism. After initially working in a Cubist-Futurist style, he turned to Surrealism in 1925 under the influence of de Chirico and by the following year had already emerged as a highly individual artist with The Menaced Assassin (MoMA, New York), a picture that displays the startling and disturbing juxtapositions of the ordinary, the strange, and the erotic that were to characterize his work for the rest of his life. In 1927–30 he lived near Paris, participating in Surrealist affairs, but like many others in the movement he fell out with André Breton, and he spent almost all of the rest of his life working in Brussels, where he lived a life of bourgeois regularity (the bowler-hatted figure who often features in his work is to some extent a self-portrait).

Apart from a period in the 1940s when he experimented first with pseudo-Impressionist brushwork and then with a Fauve technique, Magritte worked in a precise, scrupulously banal manner (a reminder of the early days when he made his living working in a wallpaper factory) and he always remained true to Surrealism. He had a repertory of obsessive images that appeared again and again in ordinary but incongruous surroundings. Enormous rocks that float in the air and fishes with human legs are typical leitmotivs. He repeatedly exploited ambiguities concerning real objects and images of them (many of his works feature paintings within paintings), inside and out of doors, day and night. In a number of paintings, for example, he depicted a night scene, or a city street lit only by artificial light, below a clear sunlit sky. He also made Surrealist analogues of a number of famous paintings—for example David's Mme Récamier and Manet's The Balcony, in which he replaced the figures with coffins. Late in life he also made wax sculptures based on such paintings, and some of them were cast in bronze after his death (Mme Récamier, Pompidou Centre, Paris). He also made prints and a few short comic films, using his friends as actors.

Magritte's work was included in many Surrealist exhibitions, but it was not until he was in his fifties that he began to achieve international success and honours. By the time of his death his work had had a powerful influence on Pop art, and it has subsequently been widely imitated in advertising. In the fertility of his imagery, the unforced spontaneity of his effects, and not least his rare gift of humour, he was one of the very few natural and inspired Surrealist painters. J. T. Soby (René Magritte, 1965) summed this up felicitously when he wrote: ‘In viewing Magritte's paintings…everything seems proper. And then abruptly the rape of commonsense occurs, usually in broad daylight.’

Magritte, René (1898–1967). Belgian painter, one of the leading exponents of Surrealism. Apart from three years living in a suburb of Paris (1927–30), his entire career was spent in Brussels, where he lived a life of bourgeois regularity (the bowler-hatted figure who so often features in his work is to some extent a self-portrait). After initially working in a Cubist-Futurist style, he turned to Surrealism in 1925 under the influence of de Chirico and by the following year had already emerged as a highly individual artist with The Menaced Assassin (MoMA, New York), a picture that displays the startling and disturbing juxtapositions of the ordinary, the strange, and the erotic that were to characterize his work for the rest of his life. Apart from a period in the 1940s when he experimented first with pseudo-Impressionist brushwork and then with a Fauve technique, he worked in a precise, scrupulously banal manner (a reminder of the early days when he made his living designing wallpaper and drawing fashion advertisements) and he always remained true to Surrealism. He had a repertory of obsessive images that appeared again and again in ordinary but incongruous surroundings. Enormous rocks that float in the air and fishes with human legs are typical leitmotivs. He repeatedly exploited ambiguities concerning real objects and images of them (many of his works feature paintings within paintings), inside and out-of-doors, day and night. In a number of paintings, for example, he depicted a night scene, or a city street lit only by artificial light, below a clear sunlit sky. He also made Surrealist analogues of a number of famous paintings—for example David's Madame Récamier and Manet's The Balcony, in which he replaced the figures with coffins. Late in life he also made wax sculptures based on such paintings, and some of them were cast in bronze after his death (Madame Récamier, Pompidou Centre, Paris). He also made prints and a few short comic films, using his friends as actors. His work was included in many Surrealist exhibitions, but it was not until he was in his fifties that he began to achieve international success and honours. By the time of his death his work had had a powerful influence on Pop art, and it has subsequently been widely imitated in advertising. In the fertility of his imagery, the unforced spontaneity of his effects, and not least his rare gift of humour, he was one of the very few natural and inspired Surrealist painters. J. T. Soby (René Magritte, 1965) summed this up felicitously when he wrote: ‘In viewing Magritte's paintings … everything seems proper. And then abruptly the rape of commonsense occurs, usually in broad daylight.’

René Magritte , 1898-1967, Belgian surrealist painter. Strongly influenced by Chirico , Magritte developed a style in which a misleading sort of realism is combined with mocking irony. His paintings are dominated by an intense quietude and restraint, despite a startling juxtaposition of images. Characteristic works, such as The Red Model (1935; Modern Mus., Stockholm), contain elaborate fantasies constructed around commonplace situations.

Bibliography: See studies by S. Gablik (1970) and A. M. Hammacher (tr. 1974).

Magritte, René (1898–1967) Belgian painter. Influenced by Dada, Magritte's The Menaced Assassin (1926) is a landmark in the development of surrealism. He concentrated on the analysis of pictorial language, placing familiar objects in incongruous surroundings, and disturbing the link between word and image. Other works that explore paradox and ambiguity include The Key of Dreams (1930).

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