The Artist Behind the Bowler Hat

Charles Derwent | Literary Review | 3rd November 2021

As a child Magritte was “a bit of a shit” and later lost his mother to suicide. He admitted committing rape as a teenager. In adult life he embraced the boredom of middle class Belgium – “dullness was a safe haven, a place free of devils.” Yet Magritte was one of the century’s greatest image makers and his deadpan sensibility remains hugely influential. He commented once in an interview, “everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”