''The Son of Man'' () is a 1964 painting by the Belgian

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

painter

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

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

self-portrait Self-portraits are Portrait painting, portraits artists make of themselves. Although self-portraits have been made since the earliest times, the practice of self-portraiture only gaining momentum in the Early Renaissance in the mid-15th century ...

. The painting consists of a man in an

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

and a

bowler hat The bowler hat, also known as a Coke hat, 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 and commissioned by ...

standing in front of a low wall, beyond which are the sea and a cloudy sky. The man's face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple. 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. ''A Taste of the Invisible'' (''Le Gout de l'invisible'') is a

gouache Gouache (; ), body color, or opaque watercolor is a water-medium paint consisting of natural pigment, water, a binding agent (usually gum arabic or dextrin), and sometimes additional inert material. Gouache is designed to be opaque. Gouach ...

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.

Provenance and display

Magritte sold the painting to Harry Torczyner in August 1964. In 1998, Christie's auctioned it to a private collector for $5,392,500. Both Torczyner and the current owner have occasionally lent the work to museums. It was most recently exhibited at SFMOMA in 2018.

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 television series ''

Ultraman Arc is a Japanese drama series produced by Tsuburaya Productions. It is the 29th entry (39th overall) in the ''Ultra Series'', released to both commemorate the 15th anniversary of ''Ultraman Zero'' and the 10th anniversary of the ''New Generation He ...

'' makes an homage to ''The Son of Man'' in Episode 22 with its monster of the week called 'The Man in the White Mask'. The monster in the episode takes off his mask, and reveals a floating green apple covering his facial features. In the video game ''

The Sims 4 ''The Sims 4'' is a social simulation game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. The game was released on September 2, 2014 for Windows, and is the fourth main installment in ''The Sims'' series, following ''The Sims 3'' (2009 ...

'', one of the paintings that a Sim can create is one referencing ''The Son of Man'' with the man replaced by a

dog The dog (''Canis familiaris'' or ''Canis lupus familiaris'') is a domesticated descendant of the gray wolf. Also called the domestic dog, it was selectively bred from a population of wolves during the Late Pleistocene by hunter-gatherers. ...

, standing in front of a brick wall with the ocean in the background. A

cat The cat (''Felis catus''), also referred to as the domestic cat or house cat, is a small domesticated carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species of the family Felidae. Advances in archaeology and genetics have shown that the ...

wearing a

is next to the dog on the right side of the painting. 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 global fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John ...

, inspired

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

to name their record company

Apple Corps Apple Corps Limited is a British multimedia company that was established in London by the members of the Beatles in the 1960s to form a Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company's name, pronounced "apple core", is a pun. Its chief div ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Son of Man, The Self-portraiture Paintings by René Magritte Surrealist paintings 1964 paintings Apples in culture Oil on canvas paintings Paintings of fruit

Similar paintings

Provenance and display

In popular culture

See also

References