Art / Magritte, the son of man

Bringing art in the classroom: René Magritte: « The son of man »

1. Artist biographies.

René Magritte was born in Belgium in 1898, on the 21st of November. After attending art school in Brussels, he worked in commercial advertising to support himself while he experimented with his painting. In the mid 1920s he began to paint in the surrealist style and became known for his witty and thought-provoking images and his use of simple graphics and everyday objects, giving new meanings to familiar things. With a popularity that increased over time, Magritte was able to pursue his art full-time and was celebrated in several international exhibitions. He experimented with numerous styles and forms during his life and was a primary influence on the pop art movement. He died in 1967.

A Difficult Crossing :

In his childhood he was the oldest of three boys. His father’s manufacturing business at times allowed the family to live in relative comfort, but financial difficulties were a constant threat and forced them to move a lot when he was a child. Magritte’s young world knew a far more destructive blow in 1912, when his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in a river. Magritte found hope in films and novels and especially through painting. His earliest works were accomplished in the impressionist style. However, in 1916 he left home for Brussels, where for the next two years he studied at Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts. Although he was ultimately unimpressed with the institution, he was nonetheless exposed to emerging styles such as cubism and futurism, which significantly altered the direction of his work. Indeed, many of Magritte’s paintings from the early 1920s owe a clear debt to Pablo Picasso.

1.  The son of the man

1.  What we see as students behind this piece of art.

Mathilde : When I saw the painting for the first time I said : “Why an apple? This is weird !”. But after, I looks more carefully and I saw the eyes behind the apple. Then my opinion changed. I think it’s a mysterious painting and you want to know the story of it. I learned thanks to this painting to don’t judge a piece of art before you know the meaning of it.

Edwina : What I see is a portrait that may represent anyone, everywhere. The person is hidden so It can be me or you. It’s  why I think it’s such a famous piece of art. Because it is a mystery and all people can imagine a different person behind the apple. It’s a kind of secret between Magritte and us.

1.  What Magritte wanted to express by “The son of man”

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.”

1.  Anecdotes or 10 things you might not know about “The son of man”

1. THE SON OF MAN IS A SELF PORTRAIT.

The man behind that floating apple and beneath that bowler is none other than Magritte. If you look closely, you can see his eyes peeking out between the apple and its leaves.

2. IT'S NOT MAGRITTE'S ONLY APPLE-CENTRIC PAINTING, JUST HIS MOST FAMOUS.

[pic 2]

Ceci n'est pas une pomme, René Magritte

Apples appeared in many of Magritte’s works, including Ceci n'est pas une pomme (1964), Le prêtre marié (1961), The Listening Room (1952), The Habit (1960), and The Postcard (1960).

3. THE BOWLER HAT IS ALSO A RECURRING FEATURE.

This distinctive chapeau can also be found in Golconda (1953), Decalcomania (1966), Le Chef d'Oeuvre (1955), The Spirit of Adventure (1962), and Le Bouquet tout fait (1957).

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