''The Son of Man'' (french: Le fils de l'homme) is a 1964 painting by the

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surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

painter

René Magritte René François Ghislain Magritte (; 21 November 1898 – 15 August 1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist known for his depictions of familiar objects in unfamiliar, unexpected contexts, which often provoked questions about the nature and bounda ...

. It is perhaps his best-known artwork. Magritte painted it as a

self-portrait A self-portrait is a representation of an artist that is drawn, painted, photographed, or sculpted by that artist. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, it is not until the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century tha ...

. The painting consists of a man in an

overcoat An overcoat is a type of long coat (clothing), coat intended to be worn as the outermost garment, which usually extends below the knee. Overcoats are most commonly used in winter when warmth is more important. They are sometimes confused with ...

and a

bowler hat The bowler hat, also known as a billycock, bob hat, bombín (Spanish) or derby (United States), is a hard felt hat with a rounded crown, originally created by the London hat-makers Thomas and William Bowler in 1849. It has traditionally been worn ...

standing in front of a low wall, beyond which are the

sea The sea, connected as the world ocean or simply the ocean, is the body of salty water that covers approximately 71% of the Earth's surface. The word sea is also used to denote second-order sections of the sea, such as the Mediterranean Sea, ...

and a cloudy sky. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green

apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

. However, the man's eyes can be seen peeking over the edge of the apple. Another subtle feature is that the man's left arm appears to bend backwards at the elbow. About the painting, Magritte said:

Similar paintings

''The Son of Man'' closely resembles two other Magritte paintings. ''The Great War'' (''La grande guerre, 1964'') is a variation on ''The Son of Man'' which pictures only the figure from the torso up. ''The Taste of the Invisible'' (''Le Gout de l'invisible'') is a

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painting of the same subject. Another painting from the same year, called ''The Great War on Facades'' (''La Grande Guerre Façades, 1964''), features a person standing in front of a wall overlooking the sea (as in ''The Son of Man''), but it is a woman, holding an umbrella, her face covered by flowers. There is also ''Man in the Bowler Hat'', a similar painting wherein a man's face is obscured by a bird rather than an apple.

In popular culture

In 1970,

Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...

created a playful homage to ''The Son of Man'' as a oil painting entitled ''Mr. Apple'', in which a man's head is replaced, rather than hidden, by a red apple. The painting plays an important role in the 1999 version of '' The Thomas Crown Affair''. It appears several times, first when Crown and Catherine Banning are walking through the museum and she jokingly calls it his portrait, and particularly in the final robbery scenes when numerous men wearing bowler hats and trench coats carry briefcases throughout the museum to cover Crown's movements and confuse the security team. The green apple was an ongoing motif in Magritte's work. His use of it in the 1966 painting ''Le Jeu De Morre'', owned by

Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. One ...

, inspired

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

to name their record company

Apple Corps Apple Corps Limited (informally known as Apple) is a multi-armed multimedia corporation founded in London in January 1968 by the members of the Beatles to replace their earlier company (Beatles Ltd.) and to form a conglomerate. Its name (pro ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Son of Man, The Paintings by René Magritte Surrealist paintings 1964 paintings Apples Oil on canvas paintings