Magritte, René, << ma GREET, ruh NAY >> (1898-1967), was a Belgian surrealist painter. Magritte painted in a precise, realistic style that is often referred to as magic realism. His pictures present ordinary scenes but usually contain a combination of elements that normally do not belong together. This odd mixture gives his paintings an eerie, dreamlike quality. Many of Magritte’s paintings include mysterious men wearing bowler hats. His painting Golconda shows a pattern of these men suspended in air.
Magritte was born in Lessines, near Ath. He studied art in Brussels. The artist’s early paintings show the influence of Cubism. Magritte’s Surrealist period began in 1922 after he saw a reproduction of a painting by the modern Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico.
