Portrait of Pierre Broodcoorens 1921

René Magritte painted this portrait of Pierre Broodcoorens with oil on canvas. The face is built up through what feels like a method, almost like paint-by-numbers. There are many blocks of different colors, like oranges, yellows, reds, and greens, which contrast strangely with the dark black hair and suit. I’m interested in this hand, holding the face. It’s been rendered in these same strange colors, the lines marked out like a stained-glass window, which makes me think that this is a portrait about thought, the model caught in a moment of contemplation. It reminds me of Picasso, a little bit, in the way that the subject is being ‘blocked’ out to create this interesting, fragmented vision. This painting demonstrates the ongoing conversation, the playful exchange of ideas that exists across art history. There are no fixed meanings here, only ambiguity.