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The Treachery of Images

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The Treachery of Images
Image
ArtistRené Magritte
Year1929
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions60.33 cm × 81.12 cm (23.75 in × 31.94 in)
Location

The Treachery of Images (French: La Trahison des images) is a 1929 painting by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. It is also known as This Is Not a Pipe,[2] Ceci n'est pas une pipe[2] and The Wind and the Song.[3] It is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.[1]

The painting shows an image of a tobacco pipe. Below it, Magritte painted, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (pronounced [sə.si ne paz‿yn pip], French for "This is not a pipe".)

The famous pipe. How people reproached me for it! And yet, could you stuff my pipe? No, it's just a representation, is it not? So if I had written on my picture "This is a pipe", I'd have been lying!

— René Magritte[4]

The theme of pipes with the text "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" is extended in Les Mots et Les Images,[5] La Clé des Songes,[6] Ceci n'est pas une pipe (L'air et la chanson),[7] The Tune and Also the Words,[8] Ceci n’est pas une pomme,[9] and Les Deux Mystères.[10]

The painting is sometimes given as an example of meta message[11] like Alfred Korzybski's "The word is not the thing" and "The map is not the territory", as well as Denis Diderot's This is not a story.

On December 15, 1929, Paul Éluard and André Breton published an essay about poetry in La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution) as a reaction to the publication by poet Paul Valéry "Notes sur la poésie" in Les Nouvelles littéraires of September 28, 1929. When Valéry wrote "Poetry is a survival", Breton and Éluard made fun of it and wrote "Poetry is a pipe", as a reference to Magritte's painting.[12][13]

In the same edition of La Révolution surréaliste, Magritte published "Les mots et les images" (his founding text which illustrated where words play with images), his answer to the survey on love, and Je ne vois pas la [femme] cachée dans la forêt, a painting tableau surrounded by photos of sixteen surrealists with their eyes closed, including Magritte himself.

The away kit of the The Belgian National Team for the 2026 World Cup was described by the Royal Belgian FA as “a tribute to René Magritte and Belgian Surrealism,” featuring a surrealist theme. A reference to The Treachery of Images is made through the inscription “Ceci n'est pas un maillot” (“This is not a jersey”) printed behind the collar.[14]

See also

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References

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  1. 1 2 La Trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe) Archived 2015-11-13 at the Wayback Machine Los Angeles County Museum of Art
  2. 1 2 Foucault, Michel (2008). This is Not a Pipe (PDF). James Harkness (editor, translator), René Magritte (illustrator) (2 ed.). Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520236943. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-12-19. Retrieved 2017-07-10.
  3. ↑ Bowman, Russell (2014). "Words and Images: A Persistent Paradox". Art Journal. 45 (4): 335–343. doi:10.1080/00043249.1985.10792322. JSTOR 776809.
  4. ↑ Torczyner, Harry (1977). Magritte: Ideas and Images. H. N. Abrams. p. 71. ISBN 9780810913004.
  5. ↑ "René Magritte - Les mots et les images". The Ideophone. 13 July 2013. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  6. ↑ "René Magritte – La Clé des Songes". Artnet. Archived from the original on 24 December 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  7. ↑ "René Magritte – Ceci n'est pas une pipe (L'air et le chanson)". Artnet. Archived from the original on 1 March 2018. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  8. ↑ "René Magritte - L'air et le chanson". Art Institute Chicago. 1964. Archived from the original on 1 August 2017. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  9. ↑ "René Magritte – Ceci n'est pas une pomme" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 November 2015. Retrieved 25 July 2017.
  10. ↑ "René Magritte – The Two Mysteries". abcgallery.com. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 3 October 2010.
  11. ↑ Haiman, John (2004). "Review of "Languages within language: An evolutive approach" by Ivan Fonagy". Studies in Language. 28: 246. doi:10.1075/sl.28.1.14hai.
  12. ↑ "La revolution surrealiste" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2021-03-08. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
  13. ↑ Zanchetti, Giorgio (2007). "Esploratori di parole". Esploratori di parole, in La parola nell'arte (in Italian). Milan: Skira. p. 26. doi:10.5281/zenodo.3597936. ISBN 978-88-613-0460-4.
  14. ↑ https://shop.rbfa.be/en/belgium-national-team-adidas-away-authentic-shirt-2026/p-134481601128274852+z-93-702195220

Further reading

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  • Allmer, Patricia. René Magritte: Beyond Painting, Manchester University Press, 2009. ISBN 0719079284.
  • Harkness, James, ed. Michel Foucault: This Is Not a Pipe, University of California Press, 2008. ISBN 0520236947.
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External videos
video icon Magritte's The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), Smarthistory
video icon René Magritte considers language and perception, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art[dead link]
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