Most historians have discredited the myth of his presence at the river, though her suicide undoubtedly affected his life and work, and even his fixation with hats could be traced to her occupation as a milliner before marriage.ġ6. It was once believed that Magritte was present when her body was pulled out of the water, with her face obscured by her dress, an image with which the artist contended in many of his works. After multiple attempts, she committed suicide by drowning herself in a river near the family home when René was fourteen years old. Magritte’s mother struggled with mental health issues. Many of Magritte’s images have permeated to other mediums and modes of visual production for example, a scene in Louis Malle’s 1958 Les Amants depicts two lovers kissing through cloths which cover their heads, a clear reference to Magritte’s 1928 painting of the same name and subject matter.ġ5. RENÉ MAGRITTE L'ART DE LA CONVERSATION (1950) ESTIMATE: 9,000,000 - 12,000,000EUR (Modernités, Paris, 26 October) WESTIMAGE - ART DIGITAL STUDIOġ4. One such note revealed his skepticism of psychoanalysis and the Surrealist’s obsession with Freudian psychology, “Art, as I understand it defies psychoanalysis…I take care to only paint pictures that evoke the mystery of the world…No sensible man believes that psychoanalysis could explain the mystery of the world.” Magritte’s letters, stories and various pieces of writing reveal his inner self and hidden thoughts.

Commissioned directly by James, the portrait was rendered from a photograph of the patron that was taken according to the artist’s specifications by fellow Surrealist, Man Ray.ġ3.

An entrancing portrait it depicts Edward James, one of the most influential patrons of Surrealist art, who was introduced to Magritte by Salvador Dalí in 1937. In 2018 Magritte’s 1937 painting Le Principe du plaisir (The Pleasure Principle) sold at Sotheby’s New York for $26.8 million, setting a new record for the artist. His clean aesthetic and treatment of everyday objects informed the work of Ed Ruscha, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns and others however, Magritte refuted the association and criticized Pop Art’s representation of “the world as it is.” LACMA’s 2006 exhibition René Magritte and Contemporary Art: The Treachery of Images explored the impact of Magritte’s work on postwar American and European artists.ġ2. Although Magritte was a leading member of the Surrealist movement, his work has influenced artists of a variety of styles and approaches, particularly Pop Art.

Magritte faceless portraits