     This popular painting is The Son of Man by the artist René Magritte. He painted this visual text in 1964. The background is mainly composed of two parts. First there is an endless sea that goes out to the horizon, and it is colored a dull, stale blue. The background transitions up to the sky which is filled with static clouds. These clouds range from a beige grey to a dark shade of grey. In the mid-ground there is a low wall starting from the bottom of the painting and reaches up to about a tenth of the painting. The wall is built of eroded cement blocks that are the almost matching the color of the clouds in blocking sky. 

    In the foreground the viewer sees a man with an apple occluding his face. The man is in an overcoat and a bowler hat, both black. Under the overcoat is a button down white shirt with a red tie. His left arm is slight bending backwards if one looks hard enough. The man’s face is slightly peeking out behind the apple, making only a small part of his left eye and eyebrow visible. The ears are fully visible. The apple in front of his face is green and still attached to the stem. The brown stem extends up into blocking the view of some of the man’s hat, along with the green leaves grown off of it. This leaves the audience very curious about the mans face and the meaning of the painting. Is he happy, or is he sad? What is he thinking? Why is there an apple in front of his face? I can tell you that you do not need to see the man’s face to figure this information out. By making inferences through analyzation of appearances and placement, the artist’s message becomes clear. 

    Starting with the appearance of the subject, he seems to be a business man. The first thing that gives it away is the way the man is standing. His posture is very tight and upright, as if he is trying to be formal or classy. Also like most business men, he does not look relaxed. Bowler hats, from what I understand, were used to show upperclass in the 20th century (when this was painted). Men of business like to go around looking spiffy, so it would not be surprising if a lot of business men during that time period wore bowler hats. Other than that, the red power tie says it all. 

    The apple in front of his face is not to blind the audience, but rather to blind him. The apple is extremely close to his face. If the viewer can picture in their minds what the point of view looks like from the business man’s perspective, it’s all green. The apple is so close to his face that only the green of the fruit is in sight. Green is the color of money and that is all he thinks he wants. This why the man is in business and not into nature. The man does not even know that the green is part of an apple. 

    Now that the fact of the man beings blinded by the apple has been established, the viewer can look onto the man’s emotions of his situation. The man can’t see the bigger picture. The green of the apple is only part of what he wants in life. The man needs to take a step back to see what he really wants. Instead of business, he wants a lifestyle closer to nature. The man is letting himself be controlled by what he sees initially but can’t find the power to take a step back. 

    The left arm slightly bending backwards could be the artists way of saying that there is hope. The man’s left arm going backwards is possibly the first movement towards the man taking a step back. But at the same time, it could mean the man is in pain. He is getting his elbow twisted the wrong way by no other outside force. He is doing this to himself because maybe deep down he realized that maybe business isn’t the true path for him.

    The man cannot move back and widen his perspective. There is a wall, a man made wall, disabling him from doing so. The man is on the artificial side of the wall where he and society (the wall) thinks he belongs. Not only is he restricting himself with the blinding apple, but society has built and stuck him in like the cement obstructing wall behind. 

    The background displays the inner emotions that are hidden within the business man. The sea, is dull and flat. This shows the man’s willpower. He has no fire inside of him as a go getter in his world. He is boring and fading. With no waves, a sea or ocean exhibits no strength. This man doesn’t have it within himself to change. Moving up to the sky, his sunshine is blocked. The suns rays symbolize freedom and purity. These ideas are obscured from his mind. The grey clouds are literally clouding his judgment and he cannot see through it. The man’s back is towards this background of ocean and sky; another indication of this man’s blindness towards his true calling of nature.

    The title of this work, The Son of Man, has its own context supporting the same meaning. From a religious view, The Son of Man is commonly referring to Jesus in a biblical sense. So in this way, the apple is men’s downfall because of the whole section where Adam bit the forbidden apple. The apple is also this mans downfall, blocking him for what he genuinely seeks. 

    Magritte first painted this piece of art as a self-portrait, maybe trying to express his feelings of  resentment of his own occupation. Then it was released, making this painting successful in the way of sending its message to the world. It is meant for everyone to see, and accomplished this because of its popularity. The artist wants to show that sometimes the way you see things, isn’t the way you really want to. René wants people to take a step back from what they think is important in what they are doing and look at what they truly want before they end of up like this poor business man.