René Magritte is the leading painter of Surrealism, one of the few Belgian figurative art movements that gained a following on the international scene. As a Surrealist, he wants to disturb the perception of the familiar and his paintings put the real world to the test. In Magritte's visual idiom, elements from everyday reality often recur in different alienating combinations. L'attentat unites three important aspects from his repertoire. Going against the laws of nature, a blue sky dotted with clouds is caught inside a perfectly rectangular block. The female torso is contained within the limits of a wooden frame. The angular frame lends the tender nude an explosive force. The silver bell is a mass-produced article. L'attentat is a typical example of an absurd composition with realistically painted objects torn from their context and brought together in a poetic vision.