The Castle of the Pyrenees 1959

René Magritte made "The Castle of the Pyrenees" using oil on canvas, and the finish has a dreamy, almost airbrushed quality. He’s giving us a clear image, but what is it? Magritte layers the unreal on top of the real with such a smooth touch that you almost don’t notice. There’s a real sense of weight and texture in the rock, you can almost feel the craggy surface and see the individual brushstrokes that build up the form. Then there's that dark underbelly of the rock, so intensely shadowed that it pulls the whole thing downwards. The ocean below is painted with small strokes, a way of seeing shared by many artists including Courbet. This play between precision and fantasy asks us to reconsider how we see the world. Magritte makes it clear that art isn't about fixed meanings but about opening up new ways of experiencing reality.