"La condition humaine" (The Human Condition), an oil on canvas painted by René Magritte in 1933. This work is a clear juxtaposition of two obviously distinct and individual objects, a painting and a window. What is clear is that the painting perfectly mimics the landscape as seen through the window. Magritte uses the understanding or inference, that what is behind the painting is exactly what is show on the canvas within the canvas. This coherent continuance of the landscape in the background gives the viewer an illusion that what is seen in the painting within the painting actually exists behind that very painting. Magritte then uses the possibility that there is something else other than a tree or hill behind that inscribed painting against the viewer. He denies the viewer a glimpse of the 'reality' behind the painting, yet what is seen in that painting must be true because our perception demands that the directional forces of the road and hill continue and the possibility of a tree existing is in fact, true. This altered perception of a simple window and landscape does comment on the limitations of human perception, the fact that we cannot see what is truly behind this painting, yet we believe it to be real. This fallacy can be applied to any perception, what if what we are led to see and believe is not actually the truth? Can we trust the painting withing the painting? Or has Magritte fooled every viewer who crosses paths with this work? Even his title betrays our own situation; our own 'Human Condition' of perception.
Source
René Magritte
"La condition humaine"
1933
Oil on canvas
39 x 32 in
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