Dark Arts: Not To Be Reproduced

***For October The Book Babe features all things spooky. The Art of Reading, featuring art whose subject matter is reading will return in November***

Not To Be Reproduced by Magritte

Rene Magritte was a Belgian surrealist. In this painting Magritte depicts the poet Edward James. Even though this isn't technically a "creepy" painting it still has an element of strangeness. Why can James only see the reflection of the back of his head and not his face? The book on the mantel (which is reflected in the mirror correctly) is Edward Allen Poe's The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Poe was known to be one of Magritte's favorite authors.