“The Great Century”
1954
Le Grand Siècle
René Magritte
A Response by
9/10 SO English
2009
"Everything we see hides
another thing, we always
want to see what is hidden by
what we see."
- Rene Magritte
The Great War 1964
Rene François Ghislain Magritte
1898 - 1967
Rene Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist artist. His paintings were clever, amusing
and thought provoking. Magritte paintings were influenced by many styles:
Impressionism: Using, quick brush strokes light and colour to show moments in
time
Cubism: Objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstract form
Futurism: Dislike of the things in the past and admiration of the future
Fauvism: Using colours, often non naturalistic to express feelings
Pop: Attention upon familiar images of popular culture.
Minimalist: Reducing art to the minimum number of
colours,
shapes, lines, textures.
Conceptual: The idea or concept is the most
important aspect of the work.
Magritte’s paintings shows ordinary objects in an
unusual situation, which gives new meaning to
familiar things.
Wikipedia
The Man in the Bowler Hat
In a town a long time ago there was a man in a bowler hat. His
dad was dead; he had died in a fire a long time ago. His mum was
at the hospital having the man in the bowler hat and after having
given birth his mum died. So he lived with his uncle and aunt.
When he was 18 he decided to find his own house and find a
girlfriend. They got married and had two kids and the man in the
bowler hat went to university where he made some new friends.
His friends lived by themselves and they were going on a holiday
with their families and kids so they could get time to know each
other. Then after the holiday he decided to join the police. They
needed him to work out a problem for them.
…/continued
Then the man in the bowler hat became a detective and he worked
with the police team. They needed him to solve mysteries and
crimes. The crimes were murder.
Then a time portal opened and the man in the bowler hat was out
of the time of the Lords of the Rings.
Then a rampaging elephant was about to kill him but the army of
the dead killed the elephant with lots of swords had blood.
Then there was a big battle and he got killed by The Gollum
By Brandon
The Poet Recompensed 1956
The Man in the Bowler Hat
The man wears a bowler hat, his name was Charlie. He’s got
kids, their name’s were Michael, Lucy and Daniel. His wife died
in a car accident. He takes his kids to school.
Charlie, he is famous in the bowler hat because he is an actor. In
the evening, they’re having dinner with the family and their kids
and the kids are playing toys and they went to bed.
In 1984 Charlie died, he had a heart attack. The children, they
went to the country on the train in England to live with Grandma.
By Jackson
The Man in the Bowler Hat
Once there was a man who had many friends. Most of his friends
wore pretty hats to the biggest party. He loves getting together.
His friends were wearing party dresses. He even kissed a girl.
Her name was Rachael. She had a pet cat at home called Pattie.
She was a ginger cat. Rachael looked soooo beautiful, the man
whose name was Peter decided to marry her. So they had a
wonderful wedding with lots of food and people came to
celebrate. The both had a lovely time.
By Luisa
Golconda 1953
The Man in the Bowler Hat
Many years ago in the year 1899 there was a man in a bowler hat.
His name was Dale Francke.
One day in May he was walking to his girlfriend’s house slowly,
but he was in a bit of a rush because he was late to pick her up for
the ball.
After he had picked her up they were quickly abducted by aliens
and taken to the aliens’ spaceship. In the spaceship his girlfriend
had her mind erased completely.
He then said “What do you want with me?”
By Ben
The Ready Made Bouquet 1957
The Man in the Bowler Hat
The man’s name is Ash Red. He is waiting for the spaceship to
get ready to go to the planet Mars to find the crystals in space.
While he’s getting the crystals from Planet Mars, the aliens are
trying to attack him.
Then Ash Red escaped from Mars to keep the crystal.
By Patrick
High Society 1965-66
The Man in the Bowler Hat
The man in the bowler hat had a family.
He had brothers and sisters and a dad and mum. He was dressed
in black. He found a girl and got married to her.
The grew old together and the wedding was great and they had
kids.
By Lara
Untitled 1926
The Man in the Bowler Hat
The man’s name is Ash Red. He is waiting for the spaceship to
be ready, so that he can go to Mars to find some valuable crystals
to collect. Soon after he took off the aliens came to attack the
man. The Alien leader had a green body with red eyes and had a
gun but it was only a movie.
After the movie, Ash Red was coming to Hollywood and he is
trying to listen to the announcements to get an award. Later, a
big black robot that is out of control, because the man that is
controlling him around Hollywood.
Ash Red, the real man, worked out how to make a
light-sabre to destroy the big black robot, but it
was too late to stop the big black robot.
By Justin
The King’s Museum 1966
The Man in the Bowler Hat
The man is wearing a bowler hat. He is wearing a t-shirt and he
is holding a briefcase.
He is also wearing a black jacket, a black coat and he is wearing
black shoes.
He is feeling happy.
The man in the bowler hat is an interesting
story because he wears nice clothes and
he feels happy when he wears nice things.
He chooses the right stuff to wear. He is an
artist. He does great artworks.
By Tom
The Musings of a Solitary
Walker 1926
The Man in the Bowler Hat
The man is maybe waiting for his kids to come to play with him.
Outside the kids could be 12 years old and the other could be 16
years old. He wanted to play ball games with them. In the
backyard there are lots of trees and toys for the kids to play with.
By Matthew
The Happy Donor 1966
The Man in the Bowler Hat
I saw the man in a bowler hat. He was locked in the garden. He
saw some kids playing the playground. Because the wanted to
play with their toys, the kids are also trapped. I didn’t see their
parents. They wore black shirts and black jeans and also black
shoes.
By Caitlin
Detail from “The Great Century” 1954