The Pleasure Principle (Portrait of Edward James) (1937)

The Pleasure Principle (Portrait of Edward James) (1937)
Painter: René Magritte
Oil on canvas
79 x 63.5 cm


Edward James was a fascinating person and a passionate supporter of the surrealists. The pleasure principle is a psychoanalytic concept, originated by Sigmund Freud. The pleasure principle states that people seek pleasure and avoid pain. The counterpart is the reality principle, which defers gratification when necessary. Psychologists and neuroscientists believe the pleasure principle is responsible for the pleasurable feeling a person receives after acquiring knowledge or grasping a concept.

Magritte is playing with that emotion by enigmatically turning the subject’s most defining feature - his face - into a brightly glowing fireball. The subject’s pose is also mystifying. Who sits like that? What is his hand doing? The rock is obviously symbolic, but of what? Magritte was usually coy when asked about the meaning of his works. He typically said they are meaningless because they are paintings, not concepts able to be known. By which he was implying that the intended symbolism is less significant than the feeling someone has when looking at the painting. In this case, he wants to invoke that feeling of the frustration when the pleasurable feelings of acquiring knowledge are denied.