Les Amants
The Lovers
René Magritte
Surrealism
The lovers is one such painting that intrigues and holds so much mystery. It is an example of how simple artwork awakens the most complex meanings, exciting stories, and emotions. This painting was created by one of the most famous French artists, René Magritte, in 1928. It is known that most of his artworks are themed on frustrated desire, yearning for love, and craving for lust.
The lovers have four variations (take a look at the paintings down below). However, the two of them are pretty well-known by viewers worldwide. One of them is painted in a close-up scene of two lovers, locked in a tight embrace, transfiguring an act of passion and intimacy into one of isolation and frustration, a frustrated desire – with faces covered in cloth. Enveloped faces were known for Magritte’s motif on his creation.
In all series of these paintings, the women are entirely covered in veils which is enough to interpret passion, love, and genuine intimacy. It shows that if this is about two lovers, it can be described as “love is blind’.
When two people are in love, they are so deep and passionate about their feelings that they do not notice anyone or anything around. It’s blind, it drives one’s mind crazy, yet it’s beautiful – it’s worth the risk and everything that needs to be sacrificed.
Some have interpreted this artwork to depict the inability to fully unveil the essence of relationships and the difficulty of sharing its passionate and intimate moment – even with the people they considered as their close ones.
Some also speculated that his trauma, his tragic past, inspired this painting. At the age of 14, Magritte’s mother was committed suicide, and her body was found in the River Sambre. At that time, he witnessed her whole body being fished from the water, with her face wrapped by her wet nightgown.
However, he has said it clear in one of his interviews that it has nothing to do with his past – it is simply just a painting that holds so much mystery, just like his other paintings.
Another version was voiced out, as it said he was very fond of Fantômas – still, nobody knows the woman’s identity hiding her face under the mask.
The lovers are situated in a room with the back wall, sidewall, and ceiling showing a bit. The color of the back fence is blue-grey with a lighter shade on the bottom half and a darker shade through the top half. The sidewall is brick red which both have darker and lighter shades. The ceiling is colored in white and has a decorative trim along the border of the wall; however, it isn’t fully colored along the perimeter of the blue-grey wall.
Both figures have a whitish veil that covers their faces and necks completely. The coverings are tight against the front and top of the head and loose towards the back.
The male figure wears a black suit and ties with a solid white shirt that seems to be formal. He embraced the woman who dressed in a red, sleeveless garment with white trim – tanned arms fully exposed. The man looked like he was in a dominant position relative to the woman.
These two figure seems to be in an intimate atmosphere as she tilts her head up while he leans down, trying to kiss her hungrily, passionately. The way she slightly tilted her face to the left gives her lover more access to her lips and makes her lover more prominent, and reveals the distinct outline of his nose. However, if to look closer at her body position, she is leaning backward a bit. It is, for sure, provokes a mystery that quite hard to put its real meaning.
The elements in this painting are the veils, the room, and the two figures. Many viewers wonder if this is a kiss of denied love or honestly and simply just a lover engaged in a romantic time together – alone. The deathlike cloth keeps the two figures at a distance, but the intimacy is there – it is as if to tell that barriers do not exist when it comes to love.
The room is painted in a mysterious yet inviting setting – colored in bold colors with no windows at all. However, the lovers are the primary object; it creates an atmosphere of mystery and conspiracy, making this painting more fascinating and thought-provoking.
Magritte’s vision in this painting is simple yet quite interesting as it involves a deep feeling, deep meaning.
For Magritte himself, he wanted the viewers to have their perspective – translated its painting just by observing the whole details, concluding each meaning. Indeed, he is a genius, brilliant artist that deserves to be remembered as one of the greatest artists of all time.
The lovers painting can now be viewed at the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), New York City, USA. It remains a part of an iconic work of surrealism.
