Rachel Baes (1912-1983)

Rachel Baes (1912-1983) was a Belgian Surrealist painter who was the daughter of the artist Émile Baes. She received no formal artistic training but began her career in 1929 when she exhibited works at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris to critical acclaim. Creating dreamlike worlds that evoked Surrealism, often depicting lone women in interiors, she quickly became known for her distinctive Surrealist style.

In the 1930s, she became a member of the Surrealist group around René Magritte and counted among her friends André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Paul Éluard, Max Ernst, Georges Bataille and Irène Hamoir. She first encountered E.L.T Mesens and René Magritte through the poet, and art dealer Herman Toussaint in 1947. That same year, Magritte painted her portrait as Shéhérazade.