The Perspective of Madame Recamier

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Location: The National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa).

In addition to the mysteriousness and fantasticality characteristic of Surrealism, many of Rene Magritte’s canvases are filled with a kind of humor, which can safely be classified as “black”. A vivid example of this is the painting “Perspective of Madame Recamier”, the basis for which was the well-known canvas of French artist Jacques Louis David. The painting completely repeats the decor and plot of the original work; just in place of a beautiful woman in a white dress gracefully sitting on a couch, the artist placed a boarded-up coffin, shocking with its inappropriateness and strange shape. In the 1950s, Magritte created several similar parodies of classics, including The Balcony of Manet and Madame Recamier of Gerard.