Alice in the Wonderland

In this work a large tree in the foreground has a face shown in profile, and in the clouds in the distance a pear gestures happily. The foreground is completed in solid browns and greens which serves a perspectival purpose, making the background in its pale pastel palette seem further away. This painting demonstrates Magritte’s strong affinity with Surrealism. Befriending the Surrealist founder and author Bréton following his move to Paris, Magritte’s work typified the movement: strange combinations of images portrayed in a dream-like reality. The Surrealist’s goal was to portray a reality that combined both the conscious mind and the unconscious mind, a ‘sur’ (below) -reality. Taking influence from the 1865 novel by Lewis Carroll ‘Alice in Wonderland’, after which the piece is named, Magritte has shown a strange world similar to those which appear in the book. Although this scene is not actually mentioned in the novel, similar peculiarities occur involving surreal metamorphoses (such as a talking cat).