Le Choeur des Sphinges 1964

René Magritte made this painting, Le Choeur des Sphinges, with oil on canvas, and what strikes me first is its stillness, a kind of quiet hum in the detailed texture of the trees. Magritte here is making a world, one brushstroke at a time, a dance of the hand. The flat blocks of green above the treeline hang like thoughts, or maybe memories. I love the way Magritte renders the leaves, it’s like the whole painting is breathing. Look how each small dot of paint in the tree canopy feels intentional, like each one is given its own space to exist. It almost feels like if you look close enough, the tree will start to talk. Magritte's surrealist work always reminds me of de Chirico, who also used these dreamlike juxtapositions, that invite us to consider what is real, and what is not. In the end, perhaps the most real thing of all is the painting itself.