This is not a Pipe / Two secrets | René Magritte, 1928 – 66
René Magritte, Two secrets, 1966
The Treachery of Images (La trahison des images, 1928–29), is a painting by the Belgian René Magritte, painted when Magritte was 30 years old. The Treachery of Images displays Magritte’s attempt to have the viewer question their reality. The painting portrays a pipe, and at the bottom of the painting, in French, states “This is not a pipe.” Magritte’s point is simple: the painting is not a pipe; it is an Image of a pipe. An anecdotal story is that when Magritte was asked if the painting was a pipe, he replied that of course it is not a pipe, and suggested that they try to stuff it with tobacco. He used the same technique in a painting of an apple, portraying a large green apple, with the line “This is not an apple.”
