Son of Man Painting

The Son of Man is one of those paintings that have never stopped fascinating people. What is it about this painting that makes its popularity enduring? The Son of Man is a self-portrait that consists of a man in an overcoat and a bowler hat who stands in the front of a short wall beyond which is the sea and the cloudy sky.

A hovering green apple obscures the man's face, and the man's eyes can be seen peeking over the edge of the apple. The Son of Man is not only a masterpiece from René's surrealist era, but it also emphasises the fact that not everything has to be perfect.

And the things that aren't portrayed are the things that raise curiosity in the viewer's mind. Whenever you take a look at this painting, it makes sure to leave you stunned with the details and the depth in which it stands. 

The Son of Man Painting Meaning 

The Son of Man, known in French as 'Le fils de l'homme,' is one of René Magritte's most famed paintings. It is also known as the painting of a man with an apple in front of his face. The artist painted The Son of Man in 1964, depicting a man in a grey suit with a green apple floating in front of his face. There are many speculations about the Son of Man painting, including that the biblical theory of Jesus Christ inspired it.

Though Son of Man is a biblical reference to Jesus Christ, it is also the title of a painting. In Christianity, the "son of man" refers to Jesus. Some art analysts interpret The Son of Man painting as a surrealist impression of Jesus's transfiguration.

• But when the artist was asked about whether The Son of Man is actually related to something religious, he denied it by saying none of his works are inspired by biblical stories or anything like that. Later, the speculations were dissolved when there was no mention of Jesus or any religion in his paintings.

• René Magritte said he was commissioned to paint a self-portrait, but he ended up painting a man who is well dressed and has everything, but he has an apple on his face. It seems the apple has been added to hide something. The painting was covered in gloomy clouds, and with a dislocated elbow, René painted it because his life was full of confusion at that moment.

• The gloomy weather showed the sadness he was facing, and the dislocated elbow shows that he was suffering from pain in his life, and he was facing all the challenges by hiding the pain, so he covered his face with an apple.

• It was assumed that René commissioned someone else to do this work on his behalf, but the rumours have vanished. Now, it is clear that he had painted himself in the painting and not anyone else.  He was not a big fan of showing his face, and he wanted to hide his face, which is why he covered his face in The Son of Man. 

• René painted The Son of Man with a hidden side to motivate viewers to imagine multiple perspectives. The hidden aspects illustrate a message that the things we can't see are the things we desire. 

• It is one of the most decorated paintings from René Magritte's Surrealist movement. René Magritte drew the painting at the request of his friend Harry Torczyner, who was an attorney in New York. They both shared a great friendship and even wrote letters to each other on a regular basis.

On Harry's request to get a self-portrait of René, he intended to paint a picture for his friend and not do a portrait. So, he drew more than three paintings, and Son of a Man by Magritte was created; he covered his face with a green apple. It is also believed that he completed the work on this painting way before he brought it to life for the viewers to see. 

Son Of Man Art 

René Magritte's The Son of Man is one of the most famous creations. At the start of 1946, Magritte was painting in both his realist style and his impressionist style. Some of his works, like The Son of Man, were already headed toward more extreme colours.

The extreme style, like Van Gogh's paintings, revved in late 1947 when he was invited to hold his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Galerie du Faubourg in May 1948. Today, along with Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali, The Son of Man has become the most iconic image of the Surrealist Movement.

It was believed that René depicted his life experiences through art, as he has always tried to portray deep messages through his paintings. Whatever the consequences of life, René faced them and displayed them through his art.

Magritte was an excellent draftsman and also had a career in advertising illustration alongside his artistic work. He is recognised for his precise and realistic drawing, which contrasts once again with the lightness contained in his subjects. "The Son of Man" was painted at the very end of his life, three years before his death.

His artworks had an everlasting impact on all viewers. He made some of the most efficient changes in the art world, leaving people desiring more and wondering what it was all about. Each artwork has multiple interpretations, and people have multiple visions. Some claim that the treasure has been hunted, and the worth of the painting has been faked.

Who is the Son of Man?

The Son of Man is a painting that is ironic and mysterious at the same time. "'Son of man' can simply mean, 'human being.' "Son of man" is used as a metaphor or idiom to refer to a human being or a mere mortal. In The Son of Man, René Magritte painted the eye as a sign of sorrow and the loss of a loved one. He covered the whole face of the man with an apple.

But when you take a closer look, you can see that he revealed the man's left eye. The famous theory behind the revelation of the left eye is that it is related to the suicide of René's mother. In 1912, René Magritte's mother committed suicide by jumping into the river Sambre, Belgium.

As a teenager, René suffered the pain. When her body was discovered, her face was partially covered by her night suit, with her left eye visible. It was a shock for the teenage boy, and it was assumed that it was why he painted the Son of Man with an eye revealed.

Son Of Man Painting Value 

Like many of the Belgian master's works, the painting is highly sought after. In 1998, it was sold to a private collector for over 5 million dollars.

Who was René Magritte?

René Magritte was a  Surrealist painter born in the city of Lessines in Belgium. He used the Impressionist style, including Cubism, and gradually developed his Surrealist style, which became his signature, René Magritte's art style. Surrealism's style revolutionises and transforms figures, and art is often considered to be literary and illustrative rather than properly modern visual art.

Objects are transformed into unique styles that create a sense of change and fluidity. We often see that Magritte showed his self and his style, and the meaning of his painting could be that there is no meaning to it or that it is merely a motif added to a painting. 

The artist leaves it up to the viewers to interpret what it means. Magritte's other style developed shortly after the so-called "vache," which means "cow" in French. This style was characterised by a vivid artistic approach from Magritte, who combined unique colour palettes and dynamic brushstrokes. Throughout his artistic career, Magritte applied a variety of styles, the primary goal of which was to question reality. 

René Magritte was the eldest of two other brothers, was born in November 1898 and studied at the Brussels Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts from 1916 to 1918. He moved to Paris in 1927 and became familiar with the other Surrealist, André Breton, who, among the Surrealists, influenced his artistic style.

René, as a young boy, saw his mother's dead body pulled out of the water, and she had a covering over part of her face that inspired him to make the Son of Man painting. However, the accuracy of the story has been in conflict. The experience could also explain part of Magritte's artistic style. He died from cancer in 1967 when he was 86 years old.  

Interesting Facts about The Son of Man

• The Son of Man painting is a self-portrait. It plays as a disconnect between an object and its representation, between reality and dream, presenting unfounded scenes.

• Norman Rockwell paid homage to The Son of Man in 1970 with his painting Mr. Apple.

• The green apple used in the painting is a persistent pattern, seen in Magritte's Ceci n'est pas une pomme, Le prêtre marié, The Listening Room, Force of Habit, and The Postcard.

• Magritte's green apple has played a very significant role in modern culture. McCartney named the Beatles' record company' Apple Corps'. It further inspired Steve Jobs to name his company Apple Computers.

• The Son of Man painting's influence has also spread to movies. The painting played a significant role in the 1999 film The Thomas Crown Affair and is also referenced in many other films.

• What paint was used for The Son of Man?

• "The Son of Man" is an oil on canvas painting created by the Surrealist artist René Magritte in 1964. Surrealists believed that one could express the true workings of the unconscious mind. This painting exhibits a sense of harmony intertwined with violence and features various elements such as wooden objects, buildings, gates, doorknobs, and the edges of its frame. It transcends a simple, flat representation of art, as it is layered with contrasting colours and invites viewers to ponder its purpose and theme.

• For Surrealists, the boundaries between art and life, dreams and reality, were more than mere challenges to conventional distinctions; they served as pathways to a completely new realm. This approach heralded the ultimate goal of Surrealism: the integration of dreams and reality into a new form of surreality.

Where Is the Painting, The Son of Man, now?

A Belgian artist's painting "The Son of Man" was sold to a private art collection for over $5 million. The painting is privately owned and very rarely displayed in public.

Who Made the Son of Man Painting?

René Magritte painted the Son of Man in 1964. He was the Master of Surrealism and is known for his enigmatic paintings based on objects filled with symbols that only he understood. The Son of Man was and will always be a gem from the era of surrealism.

What Does the Apple Mean in The Son of Man Painting?

Magritte positioned many recurring themes and objects in his compositions. One of the most well-known is the bell, a black ball, or a bird. Another recurring theme is the apple, which is always green and intact. Rene Magritte's The Son of Man painting, also known as Man with an Apple, features a green apple positioned in front of the man's face. 

An intact green apple often serves as the subject or crucial object of the painting. In The Son of Man painting, the green apple hides the character's face, transforming a portrait into something special. 

Magritte's paintings used everyday objects with unsettling placements to weave our perception of what is real and seen. 

The artist used the apple in the Son of Man painting to maintain the anonymity of a modern businessman and help him hide his true identity. It is considered an important part of the surrealist movement because he tried to convey a very deep message through The Son of Man. Furthermore, he had raised a curiosity in the viewer's mind by hiding more than portraying.

The concept behind this painting captivates viewers, making it nearly impossible for them to look away. René painted the theme of hiding with remarkable skill; people often interpret their insights when they view the artwork, yet its underlying message suggests that not everything is as it seems.

The use of certain objects in the painting evokes emotions such as pain and sadness, and at times, it creates a sense of frustration as it conceals what the viewers wish to see, such as genuine facial expressions.

The apple depicted in the Son of Man painting references the one from the Garden of Eden, symbolising sin and temptation, as well as human beings' mortal condition. This aspect gives the artwork a somewhat religious orientation, which aligns with the title, "The Son of Man." This title makes a direct reference to Christ and translates to "son of Adam," once again alluding to the theme of original sin.

What Is the Famous Painting "The Son of Man"?

Belgian artist René Magritte, also known as a mysterious painter, created The Son of Man in 1964. It has become a landmark painting of the Surrealist movement. The painting shows a man in a bowler hat with his face concealed by a green apple. Behind him is a wall, and beyond that is the sea. Magritte questioned the representation of reality. 

• In 1927, René Magritte (1898–1967) moved from Brussels to Paris and became a key figure in the visual Surrealist movement. He used explicit objects placed in dreamlike surroundings, and his work defined a split between the visual automatism endorsed by Masson and Miró (and originally with words by Breton) and a new form of illusionistic Surrealism practised by the Spaniard Salvador Dalí. 

• The realistic representation of the world of the unconscious reached its apex in the paintings of Salvador Dalí, who adopted an extremely detailed realistic technique of nineteenth-century academic painting. Dalí minutely depicted the psychological obsessions of the human mind, and many of his paintings created systemic confusion and a desire to know more.

• Paintings are designed to make viewers aware that the "reality" they perceive is just one perspective. René Magritte employed realistic painting techniques to explore philosophical dilemmas.

• Various experiences from his life inspired him to create unique and mysterious artworks, which often evoke vivid emotions such as fear, humour, horror, and sadness. His art features unsettling characters, as well as depictions of himself in an elongated form, as seen in his piece "The Son of Man." 

• In The Human Condition, Magritte depicts the way a painting's representation "replaces" reality, leading us to consider the many assumptions we make about realistic images and their relationship to what they represent.

Ironically, he was referred to as a 'little man' in real life. He was raised by his grandmother and landed his first job as a designer in a factory. He travelled miles to meet his passion for painting. As a child, he was excited about the sea and wide skies, which can be seen in his paintings. He often envisioned hidden themes in his paintings. 

What is Happening in The Son of Man?

Magritte's works challenge our comfortable beliefs about our ability to understand reality through language and representation. They reveal that our understanding of the world is shaped by what we choose to believe. Ultimately, everything is the representation, whether in words or images and the beliefs we have about them. There are three major subjects in the Son of Man painting: an apple, a mysterious man, and a bowler hat.

Many speculate that The Son of Man could be a religious reference and that the man is almost a symbol of Jesus Christ, based on the title of the painting. However, this has been widely disputed, and the artists reportedly mentioned that the painter did not intend to depict any religious themes in his famous apple painting. In the painting "The Son of Man," René Magritte depicts a man standing upright and facing the viewer. 

Upon closer inspection, we notice that the man’s left arm is twisted and pointed toward the ocean, which appears unexpectedly calm, devoid of tides or waves. The sky is overcast, lending a sombre mood to the painting, as it seems likely to rain at any moment. The man portrayed is thought to be the artist himself, as he wears his signature bowler hat and a large grey coat.

The painting illustrates how a person can feel impatient and curious when given limited information. Under his coat, he sports a red tie and a white shirt, suggesting he is dressed stylishly. This enigmatic figure is a recurring element in Magritte’s iconography. He is consistently depicted in a black suit, with a red tie and a bowler hat, which seems intentional on the artist's part.

Why did René Magritte create The Son of Man?

In 1912, when René Magritte was a teenager, his mother committed suicide by jumping into the Sambre River. Her body was discovered with her face partially covered, a detail that likely impacted the young artist. This influence can be observed in the Son of Man painting, where an eye is partially visible behind a green apple. This eye may symbolise the painter's mourning.