Portrait of Pierre Bourgeois 1920

René Magritte made this portrait of Pierre Bourgeois with oil on canvas. What strikes me is the freedom in Magritte's brushstrokes, a stark contrast to the precision he'd later become known for. Here, it feels like he's almost sculpting with paint. Look at the way he renders the hand resting on the sitter’s knee. The colors are muted but rich, and the surface is a tapestry of small, directional strokes. The texture isn’t just visual, you can almost feel the heft of the paint, like little peaks and valleys that catch the light. You can imagine Magritte standing there, wrestling with the medium, trying to capture not just likeness but something more elusive. The intensity of this approach reminds me a little of Kokoschka’s portraits, where the subject seems to be rendered from the inside out. Ultimately, this piece captures the beauty of uncertainty, the magic of a moment captured in the act of becoming.