Behind the apple
Magritte: a Life
Alex Danchev with Sarah Whitfield (Profile, £30)
IN 1946, René Magritte painted his most famous picture, The Son of Man, which shows a bowler-hatted figure in a black overcoat standing ramrod straight in front of a featureless background of sky and sea. Before his face floats a bright-green apple, which obscures the features and expression of this son of man, Magritte himself, except for one bit of eye that stares back out as the viewer stares in.
According to Magritte, the picture—and, indeed, most of his art —makes play with the fact that: ‘Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.’ Alex Danchev’s biography, the first major work devoted to Magritte, is an attempt to look behind the apple.
Danchev, who died before the book was citizen in a quiet Brussels suburb, who painted in a suit, tie and slippers and who was devoted to his Pomeranians. The dogs were always called Loulou or Jackie and, if they were not allowed into a restaurant, he would eat with them in the kitchen.
