The Son of Man

Behold a man in a stuffy overcoat and a bowler hat, standing stiffly in front of a seawall on what appears to be a gloomy, overcast day. So far, so boring. But then, there's the apple. A perfectly crisp, green apple floats directly in front of his face, because... why not? If you look closely, you can just see an eye peeking around the edge, and you might also notice his left arm seems to be bent backward at the elbow. Nothing to see here, just a normal day. The painting was created in 1964 and is technically a self-portrait, which is a pretty cheeky move when you intentionally block the main feature. The artist himself said the piece is about our interest in what’s hidden. We all want to see what's behind the thing that's right in front of us; it's a "conflict," as he put it, "between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present". Naturally, people have projected all sorts of meaning onto it. The bowler-hatted man could be a symbol of anonymous, middle-class conformity. The title, 'The Son of Man', has some viewers thinking of Jesus and the transfiguration, while the apple makes others recall the biblical story of temptation. Magritte, for his part, wasn't confirming any religious themes. Ultimately, the painting leaves you with more questions than answers, turning a simple portrait into a visual riddle about what we see and what we desperately want to.