Magritte - Statue - The Son Of Man (1964)

Decorative statue representing the Surrealist painting of Magritte representing his self portrait, "The Son Of Man". © Fondation Magritte / C. Herscovici "Le fils de l'homme" (1964)

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 "face is largely obscured by a hovering green apple. However, the man "eyes can be seen peeking over the edge of the apple.

This work was commissioned by Harry Torczyner in the summer of 1963 and delivered to him in August 1964. He had asked Magritte to do a self portrait in the spirit of self portraits by two Flemish painters, Rubens and Ensor, in which the artists wear hats. The title of this work was found by Irene Hamoir, a Belgian poet and an important member of the Belgian surrealist movement.

Magritte was a painter of ideas; a painter of visible thoughts, rather than of subjects. He valued neither lyrical nor the abstraction. He described his paintings saying, My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, "˜What does that mean?' It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing, it is unknowable."