René Magritte was born on November 21, 1898 in the town of Lessines located in the Hainaut province of Southern Belgium. There were many large differences between the Northern Belgians and the Southern Belgians, for the Northern Belgians * spoke a dialect of Dutch and were largely Roman Catholic, whereas the Southern Belgians * had a reputation for being slightly rebellious and varied in their religious beliefs.

1900-1909

Magritte recalled merely three events of his childhood in Lessines, yet these events can be of great interest as they sparked something inside of the toddler that foreshadowed his later life as a poet and surrealist.

Crate

His very first memory took place in his cradle. Beside the crib there lay a wooden crate. This mysterious object aroused a feeling of strangeness and disquiet in the boy that he would meet again in his later life.

Balloon

One lovely Belgian afternoon a balloon is floating free and lazy through the cloudy skies of Hainaut, when all of a sudden its journey grinds to a halt as it gets caught on the rooftop of a house belonging to a small, and shy, young child. The adults of the household notice its presence and many attempts to fetch it down are undergone, but to little effect. However, after observing the men's many attempts to remove the balloon, the shy, young child, Magritte, is left with a deep sensitivity for all things eluding immediate comprehension.

Cemetery

At the age of eleven Magritte befriended a little girl and the two would spend their days playing in an abandoned old cemetery. They would open the iron gates and sneak into the underground vaults. One day, as the two exited the vaults and were flooded by the light of day, Magritte noticed an artist painting in one of the alleys of the cemetery. To Magritte, the art seemed like magic, and the artist of a divine nature. It was his first encounter with what would become his preferred medium of poetic expression, and at that time, he felt as if the painter was bringing his canvas to life.

In 1915, Magritte would learn that painting had very little direct relation to life and also that anyone's efforts to free themselves was always derided by the public. Thus, from then on he would attempt to regain a position that enabled him to see the world differently from what people expected to see from him.

1909-1912

Magritte's father was a failed tailor and merchant, while his mother was a milliner. Business was horrible, and so the family moved very often; First from Lessines to Gilly, then to Chatelet, followed by a move to Charleroi, back to Chatelet, and again to Charleroi.

In 1912, Magritte was taken into the care of his grandmother and various nannies following the suicide of his mother, Adeline Magritte. For reasons still unknown today, she flung herself into the River Sambre, and drowned in its icy waters. Magritte was only fourteen at the time, yet his only memory of the event was having a feeling of pride in being the center of sympathy and interest at the Charleroi grammar school.

Throughout his entire life, Magritte was known to have had antisocial tendencies which can be best seen by his reaction to his mother's death and also an event that would occur later on in his life. The story goes something like this; The King of Belgium wishes to have a dinner party in honor of René Magritte who was, at that point in time, very well-known. The King's motivation could have very well been that he merely wanted to take the oppurtunity to commission a painting from the surrealist, but in the end it never really mattered because Magritte did the unthinkable. A few hours before his honorary dinner was about to begin, he called saying that he wouldn't be able to make it as he had accidentally burned a hole through his dinner coat with a cigarette.

1913-1915

René Magritte was the eldest of his two brothers, Paul and Raymond.

Raymond Magritte

The youngest of his siblings, Raymond was very practical and realistic. He grew up to become a clever business man, and art meant absolutely nothing to him. René and Paul disliked him very much, having been known to call him bourgeois and conformist. Their dislike was most probably based on the incredibly different personalities they had compared to his.

Paul Magritte

Paul Magritte was a songwriter whose most famous works were; 'Le petit nid,' and, 'Quand je t'ai donne mon coeur.' He also composed music to the poem by Paul Colinet, entitled, 'Marie trombone chapeau buse.'

René was very fond of Paul, and the two had a love for the cinema where they would watch movies by the director Fantomas. Fantomas would become a rich source of inspiration for Magritte's subject matter as well as his titles, which can be seen in the paintings, 'The Return of the Flame,' painted in 1943, and, 'The Threatened Assasin,' painted in 1926.

Festival

Each year, the grim monotomy of Charleroi was interrupted by a fair held at the Place du Manege across the street from the Musee des Beaux-Arts.

In 1913 during the time of the fair, fifteen year-old Magritte invited a twelve year-old girl by the name of Georgette to accompany him on the merry-go-round. Something within the two sparked and they fell in love with one another. However, with the death of Georgette's mother and the arrangements being made for her father to remarry, neither she nor her sister could stand remaining in Charleroi to witness the remarriage. They packed their bags and moved to Brussels, where Georgette found work in an arts and crafts co-operative.

1916-1922

In 1916 Magritte enrolled at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels. After a year, his family joined him and settled down in Brussels as well.

René and Georgette met again by chance whilst walking in the Botanical Gardens * in 1920. Georgette then became his sole model, and two years later, in 1922, they were married, and the two would remain happily in their bond of matrimony for forty-five years, until René's death in 1967.