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***November 2004*** |
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Rene Magritte November 21, 1898 – August 15, 1967 |
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Rene Magritte was born in the town of Lessines in Belgium in1898. At the age of twelve, Magritte, along with his parents and his two younger brothers, moved to Châtelet, where he began studying art and sketching regularly. During summer vacation Magritte would visit his grandmother in Soignies and frequented the town’s cemetery where he would play for hours exploring crypts and underground vaults. This experience would prove to be a great influence upon his later artwork, as wooden caskets and granite tombstones recur in many of his paintings. In 1912, when Magritte was only fourteen years old, his mother, Régina Bertinchamp committed suicide by drowning herself in the Sambre River. On the night of her suicide, Rene and his remaining family followed his mother’s footprints to the river, where they found her dead with her nightgown wrapped around her face. This had a profound effect on the artist throughout his life and he even portrayed several of the subjects in his later paintings with white sheets over their heads as a reference to his mother's suicide. |
A year after the death of his mother, Magritte's
father moved the family to Charleroi. It was here that Magritte
would meet his future wife Georgette Berger on a carousel at the
town fair. He continued his artistic studies and asked his father
for permission to study at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in
Brussels. After receiving his father's permission to study art,
Magritte studied there from 1916 to 1918.In 1922, Magritte and Georgette
married and Magritte supported Georgette and himself by painting
wallpaper designs and designing posters, devoting only his free
time to serious painting. |
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In 1925, Magritte began to devote all his time to
serious painting and in 1927 he held his first one-man show at the
Galérie Le Centaure. The show was a horrible failure and
Magritte received much harsh criticism from both critics and the
public. Through the 1930’s Surrealism gained increasing attention and Magritte's artwork also became more and more exposed and distinguished throughout the world. |
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The German occupation of Belgium marked a turning point in Magritte's artwork. During this time, Magritte experimented with Impressionist techniques, though he used bright colors in contrast to the dreariness of the time. Truly believing that art could change the world, Magritte in the 1940s showcased nude women painted in flamboyant colors and with swirling brushstrokes. However, these paintings were not well received, and Magritte soon dropped the style. |
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Unlike many of his Surrealist counterparts, Magritte lived quite humbly and inconspicuously. He did not draw much attention to himself, and he continued to create his haunting and provocative works of art, which became known worldwide, until his death in Brussels on August 15, 1967. |
