Which 1937 René Magritte painting shows a man facing a mirror that reflects the back of his head?
Answer
Not to Be Reproduced
René Magritte’s 1937 painting Not to Be Reproduced shows a man facing a mirror that reflects the back of his head.
The man is dressed in a dark jacket and stands before a mantelpiece mirror. Instead of revealing his face, the mirror repeats the rear view seen by the viewer. A copy of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket rests on the mantel, providing one of the few readable details in the scene.
Magritte made the painting for the English poet Edward James, who supported several Surrealist artists. The work is now in the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
The title is often translated from the French La reproduction interdite as Not to Be Reproduced or Forbidden Reproduction. It is not a conventional portrait and is not a painting of Magritte himself. Its central paradox concerns representation: even a mirror fails to provide the expected front-facing likeness.