Therapist

Mediums: oil, canvas.
Dimensions: 7,6 x 31,3 сm.
Location: private collection.

Taking part in surrealistic exhibitions in various countries, Rene Magritte did not seek to flaunt his personal life and the motives that prompted him to create such unusual and mysterious paintings. However, a curious audience and surrealist colleagues each time tried to find the way to his personality through Magritte’s paintings, using psychoanalysis and Freud’s theory, which the artist did not approve and subjected to constant criticism. In response to this, Magritte painted The Therapist as a mockery of the “woeful psychoanalysts” who themselves need treatment. The main character of the picture does not have a face, like many other characters of the artist, but he widely opens his cloak, showing a cage with pigeons as a part of his soul. The image of two pigeons, one of which sits behind bars, and the other outside, recalls the real principles of psychotherapists working with their clients.