Brussels is the surreal deal: The influences of Magritte live on today

IT’S NOT every day you see a dog and its master wearing matching big black shades in one of Brussels’ posh neighbourhoods.







On a hill in Upper Town, the square offers some of the best views of the city and is steeped in history.

For almost seven centuries Belgium was ruled from the ancient Palace of Coudenberg.

It was destroyed in a fire in 1731 and not rebuilt.

The museum houses the world’s largest permanent collection of Magritte’s work.

There are 200 original paintings, drawings and sculptures on display, including The Return (1940) with one of his trademark doves, and The Empire Of Light (1949) which shows a paradoxical image of a street at night beneath a daytime sky.

There is also his single image of a large pipe with the words “This is not a pipe”.

It is known as The Treachery Of Images (1929) and it challenges the viewer’s perception of reality.

Magritte said the pipe is not real because you cannot pick it up and smoke it.

This temporary exhibition is on until February 18.

On day two I was keen to explore Jette, a suburb just outside the city centre, where Magritte lived with his wife, Georgette, for 24 years.

The couple rented the ground-floor flat from 1930 to 1954 and the four-storey red-brick building at 135 Rue Esseghem is now the René Magritte House Museum.

The small dining room is where he painted more than half of his huge body of work – about 800 of 1,500 artworks.

The letters, personal documents and photographs displayed on the upper floors give an insight into what influenced the artist’s life and work.

He was the oldest son of Léopold Magritte, a textile merchant and tailor, and Régina, a milliner.

His childhood was turbulent – his mother’s suicide attempts drove his father to lock her in her bedroom but she escaped and drowned herself in a river when Magritte was 14.

In the museum there are also art deco-style adverts from his days as a commercial artist, for products including beer and engine oil.

Architectural features in the flat – the door handles, sash windows and fireplace – can be found in his paintings. His trademark bowler hat is also there.

Magritte liked to dress formally; unlike many artists he was not a bohemian.

He liked routine – playing chess with friends then going home to eat with Georgette at 6pm.

Next up was the Atomium museum – a great place for an exhibition celebrating surrealism. The 335ft structure is in the shape of an iron crystal cell that has been magnified 165 billion times.

Two of the nine 60ft diameter metal spheres, which are connected by tubes, house the Magritte: Atomium Meets Surrealism exhibition, running until September.

You can sit on an apple chair, “walk” into giant paintings and even have photos taken with “apple” man in his bowler hat.

Magritte once said: “The man in the bowler hat is Mr Average in his anonymity. I, too, wear one; I have no desire to stand out from the masses.”

The artist’s thought-provoking work, however, will always keep him in the spotlight.