The Son of Man (1946), by Rene Magritte
Details
of the work:
Artist: René
Magritte
Title: The Son of Man
Year:
1946
Medium:
Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
116 cm × 89 cm (45.67 in
× 35 in)
The Son of Man is an art
work finished in 1964 painted by René Magritte, a Belgian surrealist artist. It
is a self-portrait of Magritte and it became one of the masterpieces of
surrealism. Normally, surrealist artists would mix
dreamlike images with abstract shapes. For Magritte’s works, they include
normal and concrete images but being placed in surreal contextual situations. They are known for challenging observers’ preconditioned perceptions
of reality. [1] For him, the meaning of art was to encourage the audiences to
consider more closely and deeply the reality that surround them, and not just
accept things as they appear to be.
Surrealist paintings usually provide a confused reality with high levels of
symbolism to the audiences. [2] The Son
of Man by Magritte shows this off. The
painting depicts a man, who is wearing dark suit with a bowler hat and standing
straightly in front of a low wall with the sea and cloudy sky behind him. A
hovering green apple covers up most of his face. Interestingly, the man’s eyes
can be partly seen through the edge of the green apple. Also, the left arm of
the man appears a bit backward than the right arm. The image of the man and the
background are very real and actual, but the hovering green apple adds a taste
of mystery on the painting. Why is it a surrealist painting?
The Son of Man is a surrealist work, firstly, because
of its irrational dreamlike images and dream images with super-reality. The First
Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), written by André Breton, stated the definition
of surrealism as “psychic automatism in
its pure state, by which one proposes to express … the actual functioning of
thought. Dictated by the thought, in the absence of any control exercised by
reason, exempt from any aesthetic or moral concern.” [3] In
other words, the ways of thoughts must liberated from the control by
reason. Surrealism advocates to emphasize the importance of dreams, fantasies
and suppressed emotions. Therefore, surrealism means ‘above and beyond
reality’. From The Son of Man, it
shows how surrealism works. What makes the painting as a surrealist work is the
hovering green apple. In reality, if we put an apple in front of the man’s face
without any supporting, the apple must fall down. However, in the painting, the
apple is hanging in front of the man’s face. The apple is being anti-gravity.
Magritte created this painting with a situation only happens in dream. Such
situation cannot be explain by science or reason. Although the composition of
the green apple is unrealistic, the other objects are draw with very realistic
techniques. Therefore, The Son of Man
is a surrealist painting.
The
second clue to prove that The Son of Man is
a surrealist work is the use of poetic techniques. The main idea of the art
works by Magritte is that painting must be poetry and poetry must evoke
mystery. [4] Magritte thought that his works are from reality to poetry and
mystery. Mystery could mean something hidden and secret. From The Son of Man, the meaning of mystery
shows clearly by the covered face of the man. Due to the unseen face of the
man, the facial look of the man becomes a mystery. The audiences can use their
own imagination to think of an ideal face for the man. Besides, mystery could
also mean something about religious dogmas. Like the title of this painting, The Son of Man, it makes the audiences
easily to link it with the Christianity. As ‘the son of man’ could means the
son of god, Jesus Christ. As the face of the man is hidden, people could
imagine anyone as the identity of the man. This type of free imagination and
free association matches the principle of surrealism, which aims to not follow
any reasons and rules, but only follow the real process of thought.
I
am interested in The Son of Man because
of its deep meaning. In my opinion, Magritte is not only an artist, but also a
philosopher. From his art works, we would very appreciate his talent to create
such amazing works, and more importantly, his ingenuity on expressing those
philosophical and human thoughts in his works. For example, The Son of Man brings out the existence
of human curiosity. The hovering green apple is the most eye-catching and
important object in the painting. Because of the covered face, people would
be attracted to investigate what the man look like and his facial expression behind
the green apple. Magritte drew this painting with the purpose of reflecting the
human natural instincts. He wanted to show the humanity through this painting
as he believed that everything we see hides some other things and we still want
to see what is hidden by what we see. Naturally, people are born to have
curiosity. If we do not know there are something hidden, we would not have the
intention to find what else are there. However, if we know that, our curiosity
will push us to uncover the veil then find the hidden things. 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…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.” [5] The conflict between the visible and hidden points out the theme
of the painting. Not only The Son of Man
shows the philosophical Magritte, other famous works by him like The Treachery of Images (1928-29), which is a painting with a pipe but
with the words ‘This is not a pipe’ under it, brings out the message of not just accept things as they appear to be. Although the painting depicts a pipe, it is only an image of a
pipe and not a real object. The deep meanings of Magritte’s works, for me, are
really thought-provoking and worth-watching.
My opinion to the painting is that ‘simple
makes perfect’. Among all Magritte’s art works, we seldom see complicated
painting. Most of them are very simple and concise. The Son of Man only consists of a man, a green apple, a wall, the
sky and the sea. The most surprising is that the objects in Magritte’s works, which
are easily found in our daily lives, can express deep meaning. With the composition
of different objects done by Magritte, simple can become unique. His unique
effect is heightened by his use of everyday objects. This is one of the reasons
why Magritte’s works are being appreciated by so many people nowadays.
To conclude, The Son of Man, as a representative art work of surrealism, is a
masterpiece. As a surrealist art work, the painting can show irrational
dreamlike images and dreamlike images with super-reality. Also, the painting
reflects mystery as a poetry based on reality. The hanging green apple is the
indispensable object in the painting. Without the apple, it may become a
realistic art work only. Moreover, the most attracting point of this painting
is the philosophical thought reflected from it. By hiding the face of the man,
Magritte pointed out the curiosity of humanity. From the viewpoint of art,
Magritte could put ordinary objects into unfamiliar situation, and then they
become extraordinary. This is the fascination of Magritte’s works. We might not
think about somethings that can be found in daily lives easily, like apple and
egg, could be transformed into a poetry with mystery, but Magritte could. He
was an artist who dreamed up impossible ideas and painted then into reality. Magritte
said, “Surrealism, like ‘Fantasy Art’,
says something extremely vague, indeed false.”[6] Using realistic objects to reflect
unrealistic situation, is the artistic style of Magritte. The Son of Man is an apt example. By going through all the
surrealist art works, The Son of Man must
be one of the best painting.
Questions:
1.
Why the painting was named The Son
of Man? Was there any reasons behind?
2.
Why would Magritte use a green apple to cover the man’s face but not
using other things? What may the green apple represent, by your own
interpretation?
[2] "The Son of Man." Magrittesonofman.com. 2014.
Accessed April 6, 2015. http://magrittesonofman.com/.
[3]
Bate, David. Photography and Surrealism: Sexuality,
Colonialism and Social Dissent. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004. 54.
[4]
Meuris, Jacques. Magritte. Italy: Taschen, 2004. 103.
[5] Millen,
Richard. "Magritte: Ideas and Images, Trans." In In a Radio Interview with Jean Neyens. New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1965. 172.
[6] Meuris, Jacques. Magritte. Italy: Taschen, 2004.
53.
References:
1.
Bate,
David. Photography and Surrealism:
Sexuality, Colonialism and Social Dissent. London: I.B. Tauris, 2004.
3.
Leroy,
Cathrin Klingsohr. Surrealism.
Cologne: Taschen.
4.
Meuris, Jacques. Magritte. Italy: Taschen,
2004.
5.
Millen,
Richard. "Magritte: Ideas and Images, Trans." In In a Radio Interview with Jean Neyens. New York: Harry N.
Abrams, 1965.
6.
"The Son of Man." Magrittesonofman.com. 2014.
Accessed April 6, 2015. http://magrittesonofman.com/.
Pan: It is good to see you quoted some ideas from significant book of Surrealism, e.g. Manifesto of Surrealism. These quotations make your point of view to be more convincible.
ReplyDeleteBut one thing to remind, I found there is another artwork of Magritte that look alike with The Son of Man, which is called The Great War. Maybe you can consider the relevance of these two paintings.
Above the year of the painting is listed as both 1964 and 1946 -- which is correct? I see many such disagreements as to the year through the Internet.
ReplyDeleteTRaSH
ReplyDelete