''Elective Affinities'' (french: Les affinités électives) is a

1933 Events January * January 11 – Sir Charles Kingsford Smith makes the first commercial flight between Australia and New Zealand. * January 17 – The United States Congress votes in favour of Philippines independence, against the wis ...

painting by the Belgian surrealist René Magritte. The title is taken from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1809 novel '' Elective Affinities.'' Magritte had the following to say about this work: ::One night, I woke up in a room in which a cage with a bird sleeping in it had been placed. A magnificent error caused me to see an egg in the cage, instead of the vanished bird. I then grasped a new and astonishing poetic secret, for the shock which I experienced had been provoked precisely by the affinity of two objects—the cage and the egg—to each other, whereas previously this shock had been caused by my bringing together two objects that were unrelated.''Quoted in'' Paquet, Marcel, ''Magritte''. Cologne, Germany: Taschen (2006), p. 26.

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Paintings by René Magritte Surrealist paintings Eggs in culture {{20C-painting-stub