The Son of Man
From Ask in Wiki
|
| The Son of Man |
| Rene Magritte, 1964 |
| oil on panel |
| x × x cm |
| privately owned, privately owned |
| 64 worlds greatest paintings |
The Son of Man (French: Le fils de l'homme) is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte.
Magritte painted it as a self-portrait. The painting consists of a man in a suit and a bowler hat standing in front of a small wall, beyond which is the sea and a cloudy sky. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple.
The Son of Man should not be confused with The Great War on Facades (La Grande Guerre Facades), another Magritte painting featuring similar imagery. Both feature a person standing in front of a wall overlooking the sea. The Great War on Facades, however, features a woman holding an umbrella, her face covered by a flower. The painting should also not be confused Man in the Bowler Hat, a similar painting where the man's face is obscured by a bird rather than an apple.
About the painting Magritte said,
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see, but it is impossible. Humans hide their secrets too well....
The Son of Man is privately owned.
The painting was used in the 1999 film The Thomas Crown Affair and in the 2004 short film Ryan. According to the Beatles Anthology, the apple in the Apple Records logo was designed to resemble the one in this Magritte painting.
The cloudy sky might represent the mystery of the image, and how things are hidden from us. The endless sea might represent the endless possibilities of mystery.
22 sculptures: Christ the Redeemer
44 buildings: Eiffel Tower • Colosseum • Big Ben • St Basil's Cathedral • Chichen Itza • Taj Mahal • Great Pyramid of Giza • Great Wall of China • Machu Picchu, Petra
64 paintings: American Gothic • Arnolfini marriage • Bacchus and Ariadne • Birth of Venus • Black Square • Burial of St. Lucy • Creation of Adam • Danae • Flight of a Bee • Girl with a Pearl Earring • Guernica • Haywain • Icon of the Trinity • Les Demoiselles d'Avignon • Liberty Leading the People • Madonna Litta • Mona Lisa • Moulin de la Galette • Olympia • Ship of Fools • Sistine Madonna • The Crucifixion of St. Peter • The Death Of Marat • The Great Wave • The Kiss • The Last Supper • The Nude Maja • The Old Guitarist • The Persistence of Memory • The School of Athens • The Scream • The Son of Man • The Starry Night • The Sunflowers • The Third of May • Tower of Babel • Triumph of Galatea • Venus at Her Mirror • Venus de Milo • Venus of Urbino • View of Toledo • Vitruvian Man
