Question

In this picture by Magritte, he has painted what appears to be a late-afternoon downpour of "the common man." Although each figure has a bowler hat and long coat, each figure is slightly different. Magritte himself commonly appeared in photographs wearing a nondescript bowler hat like the subjects in his paintings. Although Magritte seemed to live a rather conventional lifestyle, his paintings depicted negatively "those who followed the common path." Explain in a seven to nine sentence, well developed paragraph how this painting is derogatory of those who follow the dictates of society without asserting their own individuality. Questions to consider are:

· Why are the figures coming down in what seems to be a downpour?

· Why is each figure dressed the same as the others and yet each is configured slightly differently?

Answer 1

What do you understand from this?

Answer 2

The figures coming down in a downpour might remind you of a water flood from a lot of rain. This might point to how commonplace (everyday) the 'common' people are.

Since they are generally all dressed the same, and you can't really tell the distinct differences unless you scrutinize (focus on) it, that may point to how indistinguishable each of these people are to the general populace (or, at a glance, these people don't seem special or unique from each other at all).

That's as much as I could come up with. But feel free to expand that into 7-9 sentences.
Tip: make them short! :P

Answer 3

Also, according to this, I assume that you have a third question, "Why is each figure covered almost entirely in a long coat and bowler hat?"

Well, if Magritte is said to wear the same kind of outfit, it might mean that he considers himself a part of this 'common' crowd. Maybe, through this art, he is mocking himself (being derogatory) by comparing his lifestyle to that of people 'who follow the common path.' It's like he wants to live differently, but he doesn't.