René Magritte is the painter of ideas, of visualised concepts, not of matter. His work is entirely representational, but at the same time it is a never-ending attack on the principle of representation. Common objects lose their identity and become mysterious. Perspective II, Manet’s Balcony is a Surrealist paraphrase of ‘The Balcony’ painted by Edouard Manet in 1869 (Paris, Musée d’Orsay). Magritte has replaced the two ladies and the man in the original by coffins. Inanimate objects associated with death have taken the place of living bodies and appear disconcertingly equal to them. This composition is one of the first works of which the artist deliberately produced two identical versions. The first version from 1949 was intended for the American market, the second, painted in 1950, for the European market. Manet’s Balcony is one of Magritte’s most intriguing paintings. The simplicity of the composition makes the image very direct. However, this compositional austerity harbours a complex whole of meanings of different levels that can never be entirely unravelled.
