During the 1920s, many artists tried to explore the world of dreams and the unconscious. This world was considered more real and true than the so-called “reality” perceived by the intellect, and therefore it was “surreal.” The most famous artists of surrealism were Salvador Dali, René Magritte, and Man Ray. Surrealists were inspired by the French painter Henri Rousseau (called Rousseau the Customs Agent, who died in 1910), and by French writers like Guillaume Apollinaire, Paul Éluard, and André Breton.