The seducer 1953

René Magritte made this small oil painting, "The Seducer", using many shades of blue. The painting is thinly applied, but with a visible texture, particularly in the sky. I wonder what Magritte was thinking about when he made this piece. The ship emerges from the sea and sky, but it is not quite there. A ghost ship, perhaps? It is solid, but dissolves back into the background from which it appears. Did he start with a fully formed ship and then wash it back into the ocean? Or did he pull the image of the ship out of the sea? The Surrealists were always thinking about dreams and subconscious imagery. There are certain painters like Balthus, for example, who are also interested in creating dreamlike images and ambiguous situations, using specific and realist figurative styles. Magritte is also interested in the act of painting. His process feels like a kind of seduction. The painting shifts and emerges through trial, error, and intuition. The ship pulls us towards it, but we can never quite grasp what it is.