Son of man 1964

Magritte Rene (1898-1967), Belgian surrealist painter. Born November 21, 1898. From 1916 to 1918 Magritte studied at the Royal Academy of Arts in Brussels (Academie Royale des Beaux-Arts). After graduation, he worked as a wallpaper designer and advertising artist. Magritte's early work was done in the style of Cubism and Futurism, influenced by the work of the French artist Fernand Léger. In 1922, Magritte married Georgette Berger, whom he met at the age of fifteen. After the wedding, she became the only model for the artist's paintings.
Acquaintance with the metaphysical painting of George de Chirico and the poetry of the Dadaists was an important turning point for Magritte's work. In 1925 Magritte is a member of the Dadaist group, collaborates in the magazines "Aesophage" and "Marie" together with Jean Arp, François Picabia, Tristan Tzara and other Dadaists. In 1925-1926 Magritte painted "Oasis" and "The Lost Jockey" - his first surreal paintings. In 1927-1930, Rene Magritte lived in France, participated in the activities of a group of surrealists, became close friends with Max Ernst, Salvador Dali, André Breton, Louis Bunuel and especially with the poet Paul Eluard.
In Paris, Magritte's system of conceptual painting was finally formed and remained almost unchanged until the end of the artist's life.
In the paintings of the painter Rene Magritte, there is always a sense of tension and mystery (Companions of Fear, 1942; Bouquet of Tears, 1948; Explanation, 1954). A strange night landscape glistens under daylight-lit skies (Empire of Light, 1954). Magritte skillfully created a contrast between beautifully painted strange combinations of surreal objects and natural surroundings, for this purpose the artist actively used symbols of mirrors, eyes, windows in his paintings ("Fake Mirror", 1935; "Key to Space", 1936; "Wonderful World" , 1962). Magritte's passion for philosophy and literature was reflected in many of his paintings, for example, "The Giant" (after Baudelaire), 1929-1930; "Arnheim Region" (after Edgar Poe), 1938. In the 1940s, Magritte tried to change his style of painting. But the so-called periods of the artist's work “plein-soleil” in 1945-1947 and “epoque vache” in 1947-1948 did not proved to be somewhat effective, and Rene Magritte returned to his style of writing. In the 1950s, Magritte completed two cycles of frescoes: A Space of Fascination for the Knokke-le-Zut Casino (1953) and The Ignorant Fairy (1957) for the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Charleroi. Rene Magritte died on August 15, 1967 in Brussels from cancer at the age of 69.