The painting's title takes its name from a major conflict in World War I, although - as is traditionally the case in surrealism - its relevance to the topic, if it has any, is left to the viewer's interpretation. Certainly, when looking at the painting while knowing the title, it is easy to read a degree of tension into its composition. The cloud and the rock appear almost to be facing of, as though in a duel - with the moon perhaps serving as a second, watching over the conflict to make sure that all rules are observed.

The painting demonstrates Magritte's essential genius. He was able to take a set of mundane images - a cloud, a rock, the moon, a simple landscape - and assemble them in a truly bizarre combination. The viewer gets the impression that there is a story going on here, a story that exists just below the surface, but the exact nature of that story will be interpreted differently by each individual observer. Such is surrealist art.

 

Died: September 29, 1997 (aged 73) New York City New York Movement
Style: Pop art

Notable works: Drowning Girl, Whaam
Brief about the artwork: Painted in 1965, Sunrise is one of a select group of landscapes that Lichtenstein painted incorporating his strong, bold lines and passages of high-keyed color together with his signature Ben-Day dots to capture the ethereal emotions and sensations conjured up by the warm rays of the rising sun.