L’ombre céleste 1927

René Magritte made this painting of oil on canvas, called L’ombre céleste. It presents us with a disjunction between a brick wall and a cloud-filled sky, posing questions about the reality of what we see. Magritte was Belgian and he painted this around the middle of the twentieth century. It was a time when many artists were looking for ways to challenge traditional ideas about what art should be. Belgium's art institutions, like those elsewhere in Europe, had long favored realistic depictions. Artists like Magritte broke with this tradition. The figure of the wall suggests that the artist is commenting on the way that social institutions and conventions tend to shut us in. The painting’s title, which translates as ‘celestial shadow’, leads us to consider our relationship to the invisible and the unknown. To fully appreciate it, we might research the artist's life and other works, to understand its place in art history and society. Art, after all, is not created in a vacuum, but in response to the world around it.