With certainty uncertain

Might the flexible creepers or simplified tree forms in the background not just as well be abstract structures? Two white silhouettes act like protagonists on this pictorial stage of contrasts. Formally, they are reminiscent of torn pieces of paper, and yet they are stuck in the earth like marble tombstones: an enigmatic double that provides a view but doesn’t reveal the meaning.

Magritte undermines all certainties. What could this painting mean?

What does it represent?

A contradictory space

The picture is divided into foreground, middle and background, just like a classical landscape painting, but even here, there are contradictions. The painted fluffy clouds are black and float not only in the sky in the top half of the painting but also below and they are in front of everything in the foremost picture plane. Every illusion to portray a space of uniform perspective is cancelled out by Magritte. Any notion about what Magritte’s painting might mean or represent ultimately contradicts itself, undermining any certainty we might have.

An excursion into abstraction

The painter goes a step further with a juicy splash of colours in the foreground. Ever the cool strategist, Magritte’s expressiveness and abstraction use accurate and delicate brush strokes. He quotes the free painting of many modern artists but throws a geometric net over the enigmatic shape in the foreground for good measure. In this important early work, Magritte subjects the concept of western painting to a radical endurance test.