The Importance of the Man with Bowler Hat and Umbrella

Most people underestimate the importance of the man with bowler hat and umbrella. So many distorted versions are taking place out there, right now, that the true man with umbrella and bowler hat might never see the shining light of truth again.

First of all, the requirements are very specific. He must be wearing a tuxedo, a black one. No white stripes or funny pants, please. Obviously, he must be wearing a bowler hat. Black, appropriately curved, sizes vary (a little). Magician-hat versions are a rip-off. Then there is the issue of the umbrella. It also has to be black, and it needs to cover the entire figure. No red or multi-colored umbrella monkey business. Then the man also needs to be only a silhouette looked from behind. You can't see the front, that's the whole point, gentlemen. There is debate about whether it needs to be a plain black silhouette, on the other hand. Finally, this is the most important part: it cannot be raining. I know, how could it.

These two winners to the left are the best prototypes.

Second of all, there are a million twisted myths about the man with bowler hat and umbrella out there. Some have it that the first one was Rene Magritte himself. This is a common misconception. He did all sorts of things with umbrellas. And painted at least a hundred men with bowler hats -in fact, you could say he invented the Man with Bowler Hat theme- but were they ever holding an umbrella? were they? No folks, Magritte was careful enough not to get mixed up here.

In fact, the myth must arise from this picture (of over a hundred flying men with bowler hats, none of them is wearing an umbrella -that's a briefcase!):


You can actually see the mystery falling down on your screen here. Then our regular fellow will say that it was probably Chaplin. As in, if it had a bowler hat and an umbrella, then it was probably Chaplin, or that other guy with a fat friend in the black and white movies.

No folks, they showed their faces and did not have a tuxedo.. so officially out of contest. It wasn't the Italian Toto, either --it was raining!

So where did the man come from? We cannot know, but we have some clues of where he's going. In the past decades it has been earning a living with American IT companies:


And some have even added a fellow child, for good company:

But these might be just the children of the man with bowler hat and umbrella. Cases have been known of claims to the lineage everywhere around the world, in fact. Introducing the African man with hat and umbrella:

the Chinese one:

the New York one:

and even the Mexican one:

What does the man with umbrella and bowler hat tell us? Does it mean anything or is it just there? The surrealists were quick to find inspiration as a symbol for mankind:

Even van Gogh gave it a try with his pencil, but he definitely got the wrong hat:

For filmmakers, the potential to 'show' the man with bowler hat and umbrella was clear, but in the end they had to show the face. A new wave of artists are now picking up the theme, and some of the modern men with bowler hat and umbrella are simply fascinating:

some of them break the rules but are equally fascinating:

The emotional load of the man with bowler hat and umbrella is infinitely tendering. Strangely enough, to some of us it inspires heart-rending solitude, introspection, while to others it represents hope, the certainty of the unbound possibilities of the future.

Are some of these meanings even close to what the man with bowler hat and umbrella has to say?

And most importantly, who is the man with bowler hat and umbrella?? That is the point.