My aim in this article is to answer the question: is the Cartesian Theory of Ideas a direct realist or a representationalist theory? To answer this question, I analyze the notions of idea, objective being, objective reality and essence in Descartes’s Meditations. I show that from the point of view of the apprehension of the essences of external things, Descartes is a direct realist. However since some proofs of the existence are inferential, I also show that from this standpoint the Cartesian theory is representationalist.