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René Francois Ghislain Magritte oil painting art reproduction

René Francois Ghislain Magritte

(Nov. 21, 1898 - Aug. 15,1967 Brussels) Belgian Surrealist Oil Painting Artist Biography.

René Magritte’s father was a tailor and a merchant. As his business did not go well the family had to move often. René lost his mother early and tragically, she committed suicide for unclear reasons, René was only 14 years old at the time.

From 1916 through 1918 Magritte studied in the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels. He became a wallpaper designer and commercial artist. His early oil painting works were executed under the influence of Cubism and Futurism and then he was inspired by the Purists and Fernand Léger. In 1920 Magritte met Georgette Berger, with whom he first became acquainted when she eas fifteen years old, she became his model and then wife.

The acquaintance with Goirgio de Chirico and Dadaistic poetry constituted an important artistic turning point for Magritte. In 1925 he came close with a group of Dadaists and Francis Picabia. In 1926 Magritte painted his first oil painting that allowed him to be labeled as "Surrealist". After his first badly received, one-man show in Brussels in 1927, he left for Paris. In 1927-30 Magritte lived in France, where he participated in the activities of the Surrealists, establishing a close friendship in particular with Dali, André Breton and especially with Paul Eluard.

In Paris, Magritte's system of conceptual painting was formed, it remained almost unchanged until the end of his life. His painting manner, intentionally dry and academic, with precise and clean draughtsmanship demonstrated an ability to depict an unreal, unthinkable reality.

In Magritte’s artwork the morphologically similar objects belonging to different classes, exchange some qualities or unite as hybrids. Demonstrating the problems of visual perception and illusionary of images, Magritte used the symbols of mirrors, eyes, windows, stages, curtains and paintings within paintings. Magritte was fond of philosophy and literature, many of his paintings reflect his impressions of literary works, illusions and philosophical metaphors.

In the 1940s Magritte made two attempts to change his painting style. But the so-called “plein-soleil” period of 1945-47, when he painted in the style of Jean Auguste Renoir, and the “époque vache” (Cow Period) that followed in 1947-48 did not prove to be effective and the he returned to his previous surreal oil paintings. In addition to fantastic elements, he displayed a mordant wit, creating surrealist versions of famous oil paintings, one of which an elaborate coffin is substituted for the reclining woman in the famous portrait Madame Récamier by Jacques Louis David.

In the 1950s Magritte executed two fresco cycles, The Enchanted Realm for a casino in Knokke-le-Zut and The Ignorant Fairy for the Palais des Beaux-Arts. These monumental compositions repeat the motifs of his previous paintings. In his last year Magritte began to make sculptures of his painted images, developing the theme of correlation of mental and material realities. Magritte is the worlds foremost surreal artist, capturing everyone's imagination. Magritte's work was first shown in the United States in New York City in 1936 and again in that city in two retrospectives, one at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965, and the other at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1992, his artwork is unmistakable and unique.

	Time Transfixed	The Lovers II	Son of Men

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August Robert Ludwig Macke