Le Cicérone 1948

This is René Magritte’s Le Cicérone, though when it was made, I couldn’t tell you. I love how Magritte commits to an almost airbrushed realism, rendering the impossible with such care. The smooth gradations of tone on the figure's cylindrical head are really something. But it's the way the paint is built up in layers that gets me, especially on the hand holding the leaf. There is such attention to detail; you can almost feel the cool night air, the smoothness of the figure's form. The leaf held aloft seems to ask a question of the silent figure. Magritte's work reminds me a little of de Chirico, only more playful, less brooding. It's like he's saying, "Look, the world is strange and wonderful, let's not take it too seriously." And maybe that's the best way to approach art, and life, after all.