René Magritte
Belgian, 1898­1967
Time Transfixed
1938
Oil on canvas
137 x 98.7 cm
Joseph Winterbotham Collection, 1970.426
© 1995 C. Herscovici, Brussels / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York 

Magritte was a painter of mysteries. But unlike some artists who painted fantastic images from their imaginations, Magritte preferred to create mysteries with real images from everyday life. Notice how realistically he has painted the objects here: a train, a fireplace, a mirror, a pair of candlesticks, a mantel clock. Magritte’s mystery, then, is not what the objects are, but why they are placed together. Where is the train coming from? How is it held up? Do the clock’s hands move? Magritte did not answer any of these questions—he left us to invent our own solutions.