The Son of Man 1964

René Magritte painted "The Son of Man" using oil on canvas. The immediate impact of the painting comes from its juxtaposition of the ordinary and the bizarre: a man in a bowler hat, an archetypal image of bourgeois normalcy, stands against a seascape, his face largely obscured by a hovering green apple. This apple, precisely centered, acts as a visual barrier, challenging our perception and frustrating our desire to see what is hidden. The composition is carefully structured; the man's suit, the sea, and the sky are rendered with smooth, almost photographic realism. The vibrant green apple is superimposed against the muted tones of the suit and the cool blues of the backdrop. Magritte plays with semiotics, using familiar signs—the hat, the suit, the apple—in unexpected ways. The apple is not a symbol of temptation or knowledge, but an opaque object that resists symbolic interpretation. This creates a sense of unease, challenging fixed meanings and destabilizing our expectations. The painting explores themes of visibility and concealment, inviting us to question what we think we know.