Forethought 1943

René Magritte made this oil on canvas painting, Forethought, sometime during his career. It’s a wild bouquet, a riot of textures and colours painted with visible brushstrokes, like he’s laying down each bloom as a separate thought, letting the process guide the composition. Looking closely, the way Magritte handles the paint is fascinating. In the pink poppy, for instance, see how the petals are formed from dabs and swirls of colour, building volume and texture? The paint is applied quite thickly, giving a tactile quality to the surface. It’s not about realism, but about the physicality of the paint itself, the joy of pushing it around the canvas. It reminds me of some of Pierre Bonnard's paintings, the way he used colour to create a shimmering, dreamlike atmosphere. But while Bonnard was all about capturing fleeting moments, Magritte always had a touch of the surreal. Art, right, it's this ongoing dialogue, a conversation across time, and, ultimately, an invitation to see the world in unexpected ways.