Which 1938 René Magritte painting shows a steam locomotive emerging from a fireplace?

René Magritte’s 1938 painting Time Transfixed shows a steam locomotive emerging from a fireplace in an otherwise quiet room.

The central image is deliberately impossible: a train appears to move out of a chimney breast, yet the room contains no obvious damage, smoke or explanation. Two candlesticks and a clock sit on the mantel, reinforcing the ordinary domestic setting around the inexplicable event.

Magritte often placed familiar objects in unexpected relationships rather than painting traditional dream landscapes. In Time Transfixed, the train’s motion is suspended inside a private interior, creating a visual paradox between travel and stillness. The English title is commonly associated with the French title La Durée poignardée.

The painting was commissioned by Edward James, a British patron of Surrealism, and is now in the Art Institute of Chicago. It is sometimes confused with Magritte’s other railway-themed works, but the fireplace composition identifies Time Transfixed.