Belgian Surrealist, in Paris from 1927, who painted ordinary objects in impossible arrangements and made the picture itself the subject. He met Salvador Dalí in Paris in the spring of 1929 and spent that August with him at Cadaqués.
Magritte was born at Lessines in Hainaut on 21 November 1898 and trained in Brussels. He moved to the outskirts of Paris in 1927, joined the Surrealist circle around André Breton and Paul Éluard, and went back to Brussels in 1930, where he stayed for the rest of his life. He worked in a suit, in his dining room, and produced the images most people now picture when they hear the word Surrealism: the bowler hat, the pipe that is not a pipe, the room filling with an apple.
He belongs in these pages for the summer of 1929. He and Dalí met in Paris that spring, and in August Magritte travelled to Cadaqués with his wife Georgette at Dalí's invitation. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, who exhibited the two painters together, call that summer decisive for both. It is also the summer Gala stayed behind when the Éluards went home.
Painting
One enormous eye fills the canvas, its iris a blue sky with white clouds and its pupil a flat black disc. René Magritte painted it in Paris in 1929, and the Belgian writer Paul Nougé supplied the title. Man Ray owned it from 1933 to 1936, and the Museum of Modern Art has held it since December 1937 as object number 133.1936.
Painting
Two people kiss with their heads wrapped in pale grey cloth, so that the cloth touches where the mouths would. René Magritte painted it in Paris in 1928, in the first full year of the three he spent in France. The Museum of Modern Art has held it since 1998 as object number 530.1998, and a second canvas of the same title and year belongs to the National Gallery of Australia.
Painting
A woman lies dead on a couch while a young man in a suit stands listening to a gramophone, two men wait at the doorway with a club and a net, and three more watch from a balcony. René Magritte painted it in Brussels in 1927, the year he moved to France. It is one of his largest canvases and has belonged to the Museum of Modern Art since 1966, as object number 247.1966.
Painting
Two irregular frames lean side by side against a panelled wall. The left one holds a pale blue sky; the right one holds the word ciel, written in black on grey. René Magritte painted it in Paris across 1928 and 1929. The Museum of Modern Art has held it since 1967 as object number 631.1967, in the Sidney and Harriet Janis Collection.
Painting
A brown pipe floats on a pale cream ground, and under it, in joined cursive, runs the line Ceci n'est pas une pipe. René Magritte painted it in 1929, during the three years he was living in France. The Los Angeles County Museum of Art bought it at auction in 1978 and shows it as accession number 78.7.
Met · 1929
They met in Paris in the spring of 1929, and that August Magritte travelled to Cadaqués with his wife Georgette at Dalí's invitation. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, who showed the two painters together, call the visit decisive.
Met · 1929
René and Georgette Magritte travelled with Gala, Paul Éluard, Cécile and Camille Goemans to visit Salvador Dalí at Cadaqués in August 1929.
René Magritte dated his turn to Surrealist painting to his first sight of de Chirico's The Song of Love, which he called one of the most moving moments of his life: his eyes, he said, saw thought for the first time. The uncanny stillness of the mature Magritte descends directly from de Chirico's metaphysical squares.
Art & literary movement · 1924–1966
He moved to the outskirts of Paris in 1927 and worked alongside the group around André Breton until 1930, then took Surrealism back to Brussels and painted it there for the rest of his life.
Associated with · 1927
He moved to the outskirts of Paris in 1927 and worked alongside the group around André Breton until 1930, then took Surrealism back to Brussels and painted it there for the rest of his life.
Met · 1929
They met in Paris in the spring of 1929, and that August Magritte travelled to Cadaqués with his wife Georgette at Dalí's invitation. The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, who showed the two painters together, call the visit decisive.
Visited · 1929
René Magritte travelled to Cadaqués at Salvador Dalí's invitation in August 1929 and painted The Threatening Weather during the stay.
Met · 1929
René and Georgette Magritte travelled with Gala, Paul Éluard, Cécile and Camille Goemans to visit Salvador Dalí at Cadaqués in August 1929.
Influenced by
René Magritte dated his turn to Surrealist painting to his first sight of de Chirico's The Song of Love, which he called one of the most moving moments of his life: his eyes, he said, saw thought for the first time. The uncanny stillness of the mature Magritte descends directly from de Chirico's metaphysical squares.
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Web source consulted for documented facts and historical context presented on the René Magritte page.
These references anchor the page in the documented record and in the scholarly conversations around René Magritte. Every claim on this page traces back to one or more of the works listed here.
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