Closely Reading Paintings By Rene Magritte

The surrealist artist Rene Magritte often painted scenes of events that you most likely wouldn’t see in your life, like a giant apple filling up a whole room, or a toy train hovering in midair. By closely reading his paintings, I learned a lot about Rene Magritte’s work and messages.

Though I have observed his paintings before, there are several small details I never noticed before. For example, in The Son of Man, the man’s left elbow is bent slightly backwards. This bend contributes to the mystery in the painting, showing that everything is not as it seems in the strange portrait. Another thing I noticed in Not to Be Reproduced is that even though the man’s reflection that ‘should be’ his face is actually his back, the book sitting on the ledge is reflected ‘normally.’ This shows that, like the reflection, reality and perception are distorted.

Another thing I noticed by closely reading Magritte’s paintings was the reoccurring background of a light blue sky with white clouds. As mentioned before, many of Magritte’s paintings include “out of this world scenes.” They are teeming with mystery and so-called impossibilities. In my opinion, the typical “sunny day sky” shows the observer all the crazy things that could happen in a seemingly normal environment. Throughout the paintings, the clouds seem to link our perception of reality to the happenings in the paintings.

I discovered a lot about Rene Magritte and his paintings by closely reading his work. There are so many mystifying details, perfectly placed, to make the observer question the reality of the world in the painting, or maybe their own reality.