Everyone knows René Magritte, has already heard of him or even seen one of his works without knowing it. An apple, a pipe, a bowler hat, a blue sky strewn with white clouds... Simple objects painted on canvas that have become symbols of surrealism! Magritte is a true icon of art, but also a figure of a whole culture. As much as Hergé's Tintin or the Brussels Manneken Pis, René Magritte embodies belgitude. The Musée de l'Orangerie presents a facet of the artist still unknown to the general public ... While the Second World War was in full swing, Magritte felt the need to paint the sun, happiness and joy. He is eager to bring joy in this period troubled by disastrous events. From 1943 to 1947, Magritte borrowed the solar style of his elder impressionist, Renoir, which he transcribed in his own way on about fifty canvases, gouaches and drawings of all kinds. It is the Renoir period! This exhibition puts in dialogue for the first time the works of the two masters of painting, but also of Picabia and Koons. A surprising but necessary rapprochement to understand the whole of Magritte's work! It is a pivotal period for the artist as well as for art history in general, because it is the support of the surrealism that followed. Some paintings from Magritte's Cow Period are also exhibited. Discover what forged Magritte's aesthetics: Renoir, the comic strip, his wife Georgette who will remain his lifelong muse, cinema and film posters, philosophy as well as literature... Finally, the Renoir period is exactly the light we need for our well-being after the dark episode we are currently going through.