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My tribute to René Magritte
An Apple a Day is part of my new series, Visionaries: My Tribute to the Innovators of Fine Art. In this image, I explore the work of the Belgian surrealist René Magritte (1898-1967). Here, I present one of his most famous works, Son of Man (1946).
If you’ve seen The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan, you’ve seen this iconic image of a man with a Granny Smith apple inexplicably floating in front of his face. To keep the surreal tone of the original, An Apple a Day features a postcard replica of the painting with an ultra-realistic still life apple placed “just so” to create the roundest, most dramatic shadow possible.
I have loved Son of Man since I saw a Magritte retrospective at the Marlborough Gallery in London in 1978 - viewing the painting in person was breathtaking for me a young art student.
About the Visionaries series
Every museum store in the world carries postcards of their most popular works. I have dozens of these cards featuring every style of painting imaginable.
In this new series, Visionaries: My Tribute to the Innovators of Fine Art, I explore the artistry of these painters - marrying their iconic images with both abstract backgrounds and ultra-realistic still life objects to create something entirely new.
I hope you enjoy them.
- The background of An Apple a Day is one that I don’t get to employ often - a light, daytime sky effect that allowed me to incorporate the landscape genre into my work.
The blue painter’s tape and the postcard are painted in the highly realistic trompe l'oeil style - an optical illusion where the object that was painted looks real. In this case, the tape looks like real tape, stuck to the surface. You can watch me work on this painting in a brief video here: An Apple a Day on Instagram.
- All Richard Hall prints are limited edition and hand-signed and numbered by the artist.
All of our prints are finished with a coating that protects the print and enhances light-fastness; we use the highest quality pigmented inks with an estimated lifetime of 118 years.
Canvas giclées: Edition of 50 (for all sizes), signed and numbered on the back of the piece. Archivally mounted or stretched and hand-coated with protectant. Framed canvas giclées are hand-framed in our studio with an espresso-colored frame with gold-tone lip. Unframed canvas giclées should not be framed with glass.
Paper giclées: Edition of 250 for 12” x 16” sizes; edition of 125 for 18” x 24”. Printed on high-quality, acid-free paper and comes with a hand-cut mat that fits into a standard-size frame. We recommend that you use a frame with glass to ensure longevity of your paper print.
Please Note: On paper prints, “Size" refers to the outside dimension of the mat. The actual images are smaller and matted to the size listed to fit a standard frame.
