The Promenades of Euclid

René Magritte — Wed, 01 Jun 1955 00:00:00 -0400

Title	The Promenades of Euclid
Artist	René Magritte
Date	1955
Institution	Minneapolis Institute of Arts
Location	On view at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, G376

City view in general; "veduta"; trompe l'oeil. The interior of a room with a painting on an easel sitting in front of a window. Through the window a cityscape can be seen; the scene on the painted canvas seems to exactly replicate that section of the city which it blocks from view. Two triangular shapes dominate the center of the painting. One is the conical roof of a stone tower, while the other is a near-empty avenue shown in rapidly receding perspective. These two triangles are an oblique reference to Euclid, the father of geometry.