The Son of Man 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 an overcoat and a bowler hat standing in front of a low
wall, beyond which is 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:
At least it hides the face partly.
Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of
the person.
It's something that happens constantly.
Everything we see hides another thing, 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.
This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might
say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.
The Son of Man resembles The Great War on Façades, another Magritte painting featuring
similar imagery.
Both feature a person standing in front of a wall overlooking the sea.
The Great War on Façades, however, features a woman holding an umbrella, her face covered
by a flower.
There is also Man in the Bowler Hat, a similar painting where the man's face is obscured
by a bird rather than an apple.
In fiction The Son of Man is a prominent motif in the
1999 art heist remake of The Thomas Crown Affair.
In this film, a copy of the painting is prominently displayed in the home of the protagonist.
The love interest takes note of it as "the stereotypical faceless businessman".
The protagonist of the film uses numerous accomplices, all dressed like the subject
of the painting, to confuse the police while he enters the museum to apparently return
the painting he stole earlier in the film.
The bowler-hatted men all carry identical briefcases full of copies of The Son of Man.
It is also referenced in the 2006 film Stranger Than Fiction, in the 2009 indie film Days
of Summer by a bowler hat with a green apple on it in the female lead's apartment, and
the 1992 movie Toys where the set design, costumes, and promotional poster reflect the
painting's style.
In Gary Braunbeck's novel Keepers, the antagonist figures resemble the nattily-dressed, bowler-hatted
figures of Magritte's painting.
Also, in the opening scene of the book, the reference is directly made and explained to
this resemblance because of an apple-scented car air freshener printed with the image of
the painting hanging in the protagonist's car.
In Lev Grossman's 2009 novel The Magicians the antagonist is a man wearing a suit, with
his face obscured by a leafed brach suspended in midair.
In Jimmy Liao's illustrated book "The Starry Starry Night", the protagonist girl, with
the painting illustrated behind her, imitates the painting to express her protest against
her parents' long term fighting.
In popular culture In 1970, Norman Rockwell did a playful homage
to The Son of Man as a 13" x 17.5" oil painting entitled Mr. Apple in which a man's head is
replaced, rather than hidden, by a red apple.
The music video to "Astral Traveller" by the band Yes features a similarly dressed man
walking away from the camera throughout the video.
He turns to the camera at the end of the video to reveal a large picture of a green apple
floating in front of his face.
The painting appears in Alejandro Jodorowsky's film The Holy Mountain, on a wall in the house
of Jupiter.
A parody of the painting, with Bart behind the floating apple, can be seen briefly at
the start of The Simpsons episode "Treehouse of Horror IV".
The painting appears briefly on the video for Michael Jackson and Janet Jackson's song
"Scream", on the “Gallery” section.
The painting appears several times in the 1999 version of The Thomas Crown Affair, especially
in the final robbery scenes when men wearing bowler hats and trench coats carry briefcases
throughout the museum to cover Crown's movements and confuse the security team.
In the film Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium, the painting is seen hanging on the wall half
finished; at the end of the film Mr Magorium is seen to be painting the rest of it.
This painting also shows up at the end of the film Bronson.
British prisoner Charlie Bronson takes a hostage and turns him into this particular portrait.
The cover of the book Rubies in the Orchard: How to Uncover the Hidden Gems in Your Business
has a version of the painting, with a pomegranate.
In the movie 500 Days of Summer, the bowler hat and green apple can be seen in Summer's
apartment.
During his performance in the 2012 semi-final of UK talent show The Voice, judge Danny O'Donoghue
reenacted the scene depicted in the painting, donning the distinctive hat and clothing,
with a model of the apple suspended in front of his face.
References