Rene Magritte.

Rene Magritte was born in 1898 in Lessines. Some of his earliest paintings from roughly 1915 were very impressionistic style. His paintings from 1918-1924 were more influenced by Futurism and occasionally Cubism. He created his first surreal oil painting, 'The Lost Jockey' in 1927. When he was a child his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in a river, and when her body was found her dress was supposedly covering her face. This image has been suggested as the source of many of his paintings between 1927 and 1928 of people with cloth disguising their face, such as in the piece 'Les Amants'. During World War 2 he was living in Brussels. For a short time he used a painterly style known as his 'Renoir Period', and this was a reaction to his emotions of abandonment that came with living in Germany when it was occupied by Belgium. During 1947-1948 he went through a period painting very provocative images. He became involved in the production of fake painting during the postwar period and this is how he supported himself at this time. At the end of 1948 he went back to his style of his prewar surrealistic art. In his work he uses ordinary objects but places them in an unusual composition such as in his piece 'The Listening Room' he places an apple in a room but enlarges it so it is the size of the room itself. Also in his piece 'Golconda' he places males in suits floating around houses. His constant use mash up of reality and illusion is known to have come from his mothers death reflecting his shifting from what he wishes which is his mother to be alive, to what he knows which is his mother is dead.

This is his piece 'Golconda'.

This is his piece 'The Listening Room'

This is his piece 'The False Mirror'