REFLEJO DE ESPALDAS

Christa Zaat

René François Ghislain Magritte (Belgian painter) 1898 - 1967
La Reproduction Interdite (Not to be Reproduced), 1937
oil on canvas
81 x 65 cm. (31 7/8 x 25 9/16 in.)
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

Catalogue Note Museum Boijmans van Beuningen:
The thing that interested the Belgian surrealist artist Magritte was the mystery that lay in everyday visible reality. He was not so much inspired by the invisible, the subconscious and dream images but rather by ordinary objects to which he gave a twist. The man Magritte portrays here is the eccentric wealthy Englishman Edward James. He was a friend of the artist and bought various works from him. In the 1930s Edward James was the benefactor of both Dalí and Magritte. Magritte based the portrait on a photograph he made of Edward James looking at the painting 'On the threshold of freedom'.

René Magritte studied at the academy in Brussels. He began as pattern designer in a carpet factory and as painter by painting and designing advertising posters. He travelled through the Netherlands, France, England and Germany. From 1927 to 1930 he stayed in Paris, where he came into contact with the French surrealist movement of André Breton. His oeuvre is characterised by scenes in which objects and people are combined together in an unusual way and placed in an unusual setting.