The Treachery of Images
René Magritte, 1929, 81.12 cm x 60.33 cm

The painting, widely referred to as “This Is Not a Pipe” (Ceci n’est pas une pipe), presents the image of a pipe with the inscription “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” beneath it.
The work challenges our perception of images and the nature of reality.
It shows that an image is not reality, but a representation.
Although we see a pipe, it is only a painted image—not a real object. By adding the phrase “This is not a pipe,” he highlights the gap between what we see and what actually exists.