The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) by René Magritte is one of the most iconic works in 20th-century art, challenging viewers to rethink the relationship between objects, words, and meaning. Painted in 1929, the piece depicts a perfectly rendered tobacco pipe with the inscription “This is not a pipe” in French beneath it. Magritte reminds us that an image is not the thing itself—it’s only a representation. This witty and philosophical painting embodies surrealism’s intellectual playfulness and continues to inspire debate nearly a century later.
The Treachery of Images (Ceci n’est pas une pipe) by René Magritte is one of the most iconic works in 20th-century art, challenging viewers to rethink the relationship between objects, words, and meaning. Painted in 1929, the piece depicts a perfectly rendered tobacco pipe with the inscription “This is not a pipe” in French beneath it. Magritte reminds us that an image is not the thing itself—it’s only a representation. This witty and philosophical painting embodies surrealism’s intellectual playfulness and continues to inspire debate nearly a century later.