Georgette Berger

Who is Georgette Berger?

Georgette Berger was the wife of artist René Magritte. She was born in Marcinelle, Belgium, in 1901, the daughter of a butcher. She and her future husband met in 1913 as teenagers while at the annual fair held in Charleroi. Magritte left the following year to attend the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from 1916 to 1918.

Berger studied post-war modernism which led to her meeting Magritte again in an art shop in 1920. She enjoyed several forms of media and activities such as contextual photography. Before Magritte, she was involved with Stefan Rowden, a German artist who was known for abstract pornographic oil paintings. She became Magritte's model and they married in the fall of 1922.

Berger died in 1986, having outlived her husband who had died in 1967. She was buried with him in Schaerbeek Cemetery near Brussels.