The happy donor 1966

René Magritte, painted this curious, dream-like scenario, The Happy Donor, with oil on canvas, though when, we're not exactly sure. It’s like he's playing with the idea of interior and exterior, right? The silhouette of a man becomes a window onto a landscape, and suddenly, what's inside and outside blurs. It reminds me a little of Giorgio de Chirico, another painter who messed with perspective and scale. I imagine Magritte, meticulously layering thin glazes of paint, almost like he's building up a reality, but a strange one. The texture is so smooth, so deliberately crafted, that it feels like a stage set. That bowler hat is so recognizable, such a signature of his! It's as if he is in a conversation with the viewer and with other painters about the nature of perception itself.