Rene Magritte

The Red Boot

Rene Magritte  was part of the 1920 art movement of ‘Surrealism’. ‘The Red Boot’ is an oil on canvas painting which was created in 1937 at that time surrealist art was becoming more acceptable.

Magritte uses Juxtaposition in this painting as he puts real toes on a pair of boots. Magritte was known for his style to place objects where they aren't usually found or to combine two or more contradictory images together. The setting of this painting is realistic compared to the surrealist object. The colours and tones used for the piece gives it a three-dimensional effect. Shortly before this was painted Magritte's mother committed suicide by drowning herself the feet look cold as if they are the feet of a dead person therefore maybe they represent his mothers feet also next to the feet is a piece of fabric which seems to be covering something underneath which is the shape of a body.

I am unsure whether Magrittes wants the attention to be on the realistic parts of the painting or the surrealist parts however I believe for him surrealism was a way of escaping from the reality of his mothers death.