Stereotypical Surreal Painting

The Son of Man (French: Le fils de l’homme) is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte.

The Son of Man (French: Le fils de l'homme) is a 1964 painting by the Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte.

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

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.

In 1970, Norman Rockwell did a playful homage to The Son of Man as a 13" x 17.5" oil painting entitled Mr. Apple[3] in which a man's head is replaced, rather than hidden, by a red apple. This Elk donning the same style  clothing and apple covering the face is the Creative Thoughts version

In 1970, Norman Rockwell did a playful homage to The Son of Man as a 13″ x 17.5″ oil painting entitled Mr. Apple[3] in which a man’s head is replaced, rather than hidden, by a red apple. This Elk donning the same style clothing and apple covering the face is the Creative Thoughts version

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The painting consists of an elk in an overcoat and a bowler hat standing in front of a low wall, beyond which is the sea and a cloudy sky. The elk’s face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple. However, the elk’s eyes can be seen peeking over the edge of the apple