The Human Condition

René Magritte completed this philosophical puzzle in 1933. An easel stands before a window, holding a canvas that perfectly continues the landscape visible through the glass. Where does the painting end and reality begin? That's precisely Magritte's point.

The work questions how we perceive and represent the world. The painted tree on the canvas merges seamlessly with the "real" tree outside, yet both are equally painted by Magritte. He wrote that the painting shows "how we see the world: we see it as being outside ourselves even though it is only a mental representation."

This is one of Surrealism's most influential images. The version at the National Gallery of Art is the 1933 original; Magritte painted several variations on this theme.