It depicts James from the front, sitting at a table, but his face is obscured by a bright light, such as that produced by a camera flash.

[6][7] In 1977, Graham Hughes made a reference to the painting as the cover art for Roger Daltrey's third solo album One of the Boys.

In the 2003 novel Out Stealing Horses by Per Petterson the protagonist Trond makes a reference to the painting after a bad dream.

"I realised that what I was most afraid of in this world was to be the man in Magritte’s painting who looking at himself in the mirror sees only the back of his own head, again and again".

The Japanese film Aru Otoko begins with an image of the painting and uses it to explore questions of identity.