The female thief 1927

René Magritte made this uncanny painting of a figure in black, titled *The Female Thief*, sometime in the 20th Century. It's a puzzling piece, right? I love how Magritte sets the scene with a muted palette, creating this strange atmosphere of intrigue and unease. The way the paint is applied is so smooth and deliberate, almost like he's trying to conceal the process itself. Look at the figure's body, a kind of stocking concealing everything. It's got this incredible opacity, that completely absorbs the light. It’s like looking at a void! Then there's the contrasting texture of the wooden boxes, with their graphic woodgrain, which almost feels like a stage set. There is something about Magritte, the way he almost dares us to make sense of the absurd, that reminds me of de Chirico. His work, like Magritte's, challenges our perceptions and invites us to embrace the beauty of the unexpected.