[Audio Guide]
An artist is painting a figure in what appears to be the studio of an atelier. The painting initially appears to be an ordinary scene of an artist painting a nude woman—however, if one looks closely the viewer will quickly realize that what is depicted is not reality. The artist is not painting a figure on a canvas, but rather he is painting the model. This artist embedded tricks within his realistic paintings in order to bewilder the viewer. Magritte thought carefully about how to evoke wonder in ordinary things that we are accustomed to and paint them in a way that would attract the interest of the viewer. At the same time, he raises questions about the essence of paintings that recreate reality. Magritte’s works take a different perspective on even commonplace things, leading us
