“The Great Century”1954

Le Grand Siècle René Magritte

A Response by9/10 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 timeCubism: Objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstract formFuturism: Dislike of the things in the past and admiration of the futureFauvism: Using colours, often non naturalistic to express feelingsPop: 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 mostimportant 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 HatIn 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

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

The Man in the Bowler HatMany 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 HatThe 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 JustinThe King’s Museum 1966

The Man in the Bowler Hat

The Musings of a Solitary Walker 1926

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 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

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

The Man in the Bowler Hat