How are you?
Currently, I am
introducing the stories about various artists and their paintings with the
title “Interesting
Art Stories”.
The 70th story is “The Son of Man” by René Magritte.
“The Son of Man” is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter
René Magritte, which is his most famous work.
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| René Magritte |
This self-portrait by Magritte depicts a man in an overcoat and a
bowler hat standing in front of a low wall, beyond which are the sea and a
cloudy sky. The man's face is mostly obscured by a green apple floating in the
air, but the man's eyes can be seen peeking over the edge of the apple. Another
characteristic is that the man's left arm appears bent backwards at the elbow.
Regarding this painting, Magritte said:
“In this painting, you can have the apparent face, the apple, but
there is a hidden human face. This is something that happens constantly… We
always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that
which is hidden and which the visible does not show us... ”
Among the paintings of Magritte, there are paintings similar to “The
Son of Man” as follows.
“The Great War” is a variation of “The Son of Man,” showing only the
upper torso and head of the bowler hatted man, with the apple completely hiding
his face.
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| The Great War, René Magritte (1964) |
“The Taste of the Invisible” is a gouache painting of the same
subject.
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| The Taste of the Invisible, René Magritte (1964) |
"The Great War on Facades" depicts a person standing in front
of a wall overlooking the sea, as in “The Son of Man”, but it is a woman with
an umbrella whose face is obscured by flowers.
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| The Great War on Façades, René Magritte (1964) |
"Man in the Bowler Hat" is a similar painting, but a man's
face is obscured by a bird rather than an apple.
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| Man in the Bowler Hat, René Magritte (1964) |
“The Son of Man” has been used in various fields of culture and art
as follows.
In 1970, American artist Norman Rockwell paid a playful homage to
"The Son of Man" with an oil painting entitled "Mr. Apple".
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| Mr. Apple, Norman Rockwell (1970) |
"The Son of Man" appears in the 1999 film "The Thomas
Crown Affair".
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| The Thomas Crown Affair (1999) |
The apple was a continuing theme in Magritte's work. The apple in his
1966 painting "Le Jeu De Morre,"owned by Paul McCartney, inspired the
Beatles to name their record company "Apple Corps."
 |
| Apple Corps' logo |
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| Le Jeu de Morre (The Game of Mora), René Magritte (1966) |
“The Son of Man” is mentioned several times in the 2006 film
"Stranger than Fiction."
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| Stranger than Fiction (2006) |
Thank you.
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