RENÉ MAGRITTE

Early Years

Magritte was born in Lessines, Belgium, in 1898. He grew up in a middle-class family; his father, Léopold, was a tailor and textile merchant, and his mother, Régina (née Bertinchamps), was a milliner before marriage. The family experienced periods of financial difficulty despite some comfort from his father’s manufacturing business, and his childhood was marked by trauma, notably the early death of his mother. In 1912, when Magritte was 13, his mother died by suicide, drowning herself in the River Sambre. This event deeply affected Magritte and his family.

In 1916, he enrolled at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, where he studied under Constant Montald. However, he found the academic training uninspiring.

After serving briefly in the military and working in advertising, Magritte developed a distinctive artistic style. Futurism and Cubism influenced his early career, but his focus shifted toward Surrealism in 1925 after a pivotal encounter with Giorgio de Chirico‘s painting.

René Magritte’s Artworks

Magritte’s artworks are characterised by their use of ordinary objects placed in unusual contexts, encouraging viewers to question the assumptions underlying visual reality.

Early Surrealist Works (1926–1930)

Magritte’s signature style began to crystallise in the late 1920s. One of his first significant works, The Lost Jockey (1926), exemplified his interest in dreamlike composition. Moving to Paris in 1927, he became associated with the French Surrealists, including André Breton, though he remained somewhat ideologically independent. During this period, he painted The Treachery of Images (1929), featuring a pipe and the famous caption ‘Ceci n’est pas une pipe’.

Mature Period (1930s–1940s)

Returning to Brussels in 1930, Magritte continued refining his philosophical approach to painting. Works such as The Human Condition (1933) and Not to Be Reproduced (1937) explored themes of identity, illusion, and perception, often using mirrors and veiled figures to explore the tension between image and reality.

Later Works and Variations (1950s–1960s)

In his later years, Magritte developed a series of works exploring new material approaches and darker tonalities, including his ‘vache’ period - an uncharacteristically expressionist phase in the late 1940s. He returned to his classic style in the 1950s with iconic works such as Golconda (1953) and The Empire of Light (1954). These pieces solidified his international reputation.

René Magritte’s Exhibitions

Magritte’s work has been the subject of, and included in, numerous important institutional shows. Below is a selection.

Solo Exhibitions

• Magritte, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (2024–2025)
• The Magritte machine, Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum, Madrid; Caixaforum, Barcelona (2021–2022)
• Magritte: The Treachery of Images, Centre Pompidou, Paris; SCHIRN, Frankfurt (2016–2017)
• Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926–1938, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013–2014)
• Magritte, Albertina Museum, Vienna (2011–2012)
• Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images, LACMA, Los Angeles (2006–2007)
• Magritte, Hayward Gallery, London; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Menil Collection, Houston; Art Institute of Chicago (1992–1993)

Group Exhibitions

• The Key to Dreams. Surrealist Masterworks From the Collection Hersaint, Foundation Beyeler, Riehen (2025)
• Imagine! 100 Years of International Surrealism, Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium, Brussels; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg; Fundación Mapfré, Madrid; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia (2024–2026)
• Surrealism, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2024–2025)
• Fantastic Visions: 100 Years of Surrealism from the National Galleries of Scotland, Museum of Art Pudong, Shanghai,
• Surrealism Beyond Borders, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Tate Modern, London (2021–2022)
• Surrealism: The Poetry of Dreams, Centre Pompidou, Paris; Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2011)
• Surrealism: Two Private Eyes, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (1999)
• Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism, Museum of Modern Art, New York (1936)

Website

A website dedicated to the work of René Magritte can be found here.

Further Reading

René Magritte’s work has been widely discussed in major publications including Apollo Magazine, The Guardian, and The New York Times.

René Magritte FAQs

Ocula | 2025