Le Maître d’école 

'Le Maître d’école' presents a figure painted by René Magritte, a Belgian artist active in the early to mid-20th century. His paintings often disrupt our understanding of reality. The man's back is to us, he is dressed in a dark suit and bowler hat, overlooking a sparse landscape under a night sky. The crescent moon sits above his head. The bowler hat itself carries complex associations: a symbol of the bourgeoisie, of middle-class respectability, but also, perhaps, of a kind of anonymity or conformity. “My painting is visible images which conceal nothing… they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question ‘What does that mean’”. The image is haunting and dreamlike, and invites us to consider themes of identity, perception, and the complex relationship between the individual and society. Magritte’s paintings offer a space to contemplate the mysteries of existence.