The masterpiece or the mysteries of the horizon 1955

René Magritte painted "The masterpiece or the mysteries of the horizon" at an unknown date, with oil on canvas. The color palette is subdued, mostly blues and blacks, and I imagine he worked slowly, building up the layers, glazing, which gives it a smooth but kind of eerie surface. The texture is so even, and the figures are so meticulously rendered, it's almost unsettling. Look at the way the light catches the brim of those bowler hats, each crowned with a crescent moon—how did he do that!? It's like a stage set, a dream, or maybe a polite nightmare. The brushwork is invisible, which is part of the point, I think. Magritte wants you to focus on the image itself, the juxtaposition of the ordinary and the absurd. He reminds me a bit of de Chirico, someone who also knew how to make a painting feel like a puzzle with no solution. Ultimately, it's the feeling of something just out of reach that lingers.