Euclidean Promenades by René Magritte, 1955. Oil on canvas, 64” x 51”. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN.

[This painting] presents the age-old problem of illusion versus reality. In this witty picture within a picture, the canvas in front of the window seems to exactly replicate the section of city it blocks from view. But does it? Could the twin forms of tower and street exist only in the artist’s imagination? Or do we view the actual city through a transparent canvas?

Euclid was the father of geometry, which has a profound effect in painting. Again Magritte is emphasizing the flatness of the painting by contrasting the shape of the road with it’s vanishing point in the distance, and the shape of the spire, which is contained entirely in the foreground. To further substantiate his point (“A painting is just a painting”) the optical illusion is painted on a canvas that is placed in front of a window — contrasting the real with the illusion of real (i.e. a painting).