“The Menaced Assassin” is an evocative artwork by René Magritte, created in 1927 in Paris, France. An oil on canvas painting, this surrealist work measures 150.4 by 195.2 centimeters and is considered a symbolic painting. It is currently located in the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, NY, US.
The artwork depicts a scene marked by an ominous and unsettling ambiance. At the center of the composition, a man stands beside a gramophone which almost casually plays music, his stance seeming indifferent to the gruesome scene behind him: the lifeless, nude body of a woman lies draped across a divan. The room is stark and sparsely furnished, with a chair and suitcase placed towards the foreground. Standing around them are several men clad in black suits and bowler hats, each holding menacing objects such as a net and a cudgel, as though poised for an ambush. Through the open window, an incongruent idyllic landscape is visible, creating a juxtaposition between the external tranquility and internal tension. The artwork’s enigmatic tableau evokes a sense of unease, inviting various interpretations and embodying the surrealist movement’s fascination with the uncanny and the dreamlike aspects of reality.
