Belgian painter René Magritte’s dreamlike aesthetic and evocative dreamscapes have ensured him enduring legacy. As a proponent of the surrealismSurrealism was a 20th-century philosophical, literary, and artistic movement seeking to channel the unconscious to access the imaginary. Proponents of Surrealism rejected the notion of understanding life in rational and conventional terms in favour of asserting the value of the unconscious mind, dreams, the strangely beautiful, and the uncanny. André Breton, the leader of a group of poets and artists More art movement, Magritte used visual imagery associated with the subconscious to create art without the intention of logical comprehensibility. In “The Lovers II” Magritte plays with the mental conflict of wanting to see and understand what is hidden.
Where is the picture “The Lovers II” today?
The Magritte original of the picture “The Lovers II” (“Les Amants II”) is part of the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
What’s in it?
A man and a woman lean in a loving embrace in an abstract interior setting with a dark back wall, a red sidewall, and white stucco at the ceiling. The two lovers press their faces together as if wanting to kiss. Yet this attempt is idle since their heads are tightly shrouded in white cloths. The attempted intimacy becomes a spectacle of alienation or even suffocation, while the white cloth is reminiscent of a winding sheet and therefore of death.
What’s the context?
In 1928 Magritte painted a series of four paintings showing lovers. The first two pictures each show two individuals trying in vain to be close since their heads are shrouded in white cloth; the other two ones also showing lovers, but the man’s body is omitted, just showing his head next to the complete depiction of the woman. This series of pictures has been analysed in multiple ways. One interpretative approach draws the conclusion that lovers are unable to decipher true intentions, feelings, and fantasies regardless of how intimate and in which setting they are.
One year before painting his lovers’ series, Magritte suffered a crushing defeat when critics heaped abuse on his first solo exhibition in Brussels. Subdued by the failure, he moved to Paris where he became acquainted with André BretonAndré Breton (1896 – 1966) was a French writer and poet, best known as an original member of the Dada group and one of the founders of the Surrealism movement. His seminal writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto (Manifeste du surréalisme), published 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism", encouraging chance and spontaneity in artistic practices. Breton More and the movement of SurrealismSurrealism was a 20th-century philosophical, literary, and artistic movement seeking to channel the unconscious to access the imaginary. Proponents of Surrealism rejected the notion of understanding life in rational and conventional terms in favour of asserting the value of the unconscious mind, dreams, the strangely beautiful, and the uncanny. André Breton, the leader of a group of poets and artists More. Strongly influenced by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, Giorgio de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan MiróSpanish Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893 – 1983) is famous for his works in painting, sculpture, and ceramics. His work is strongly influenced by his hometown Barcelona, the scenic seaside, and the distinct style of that area. From early on, he was exposed to the arts through his parents’ professions: His mother was a goldsmith, father worked as a watchmaker. More, and Pablo PicassoPablo Picasso (1881–1973), was a Spanish painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and resident in France from 1904. He was a dominant figure in avant-garde movements in the first half of the 20th century due to his technical versatility and prolific inventiveness. picasso-self-portrait Picasso’s progression in his early work is largely categorized by predominant colour schemes: His Blue Period (1901-1904) features motifs More, he produced numerous paintings including “The Lovers II” that showed highly successful in a joint exhibition at the Goermans Gallery in Paris in 1929.
Chatter and Prattle
René MagritteRené Magritte (1898 – 1967) was a Belgian artist of the surrealist movement. He is best known for his thought-provoking surrealist images presenting common objects in an unusual context, having viewers question their perceptions of reality. René Magritte, Son of Man (1965) Magritte was born to a wealthy manufacturer father. In 1912, his mother committed suicide by drowning herself in More – Facts:
- Throughout his career, Magritte used evocative symbols like bowler hats, cloudy dreamscapes, and half-obscured visages. The leitmotif of covering faces has been attributed to Magritte’s childhood tragic: His mother committed suicide drowning herself in the River Sambre when he was 13 years old. When his mother was found, her dress covered her face – an image that has been suggested to be the source of the artist’s motive of obscured faces.
- Psychoanalysts have attributed the same incident of his mother’s tragic death with Magritte’s persistent fluctuation between illusion and reality in his art, associating the occurrence with the constant shifting from his wish (mother alive) and the factual (mother dead).
- Magritte however revoked the relation between his childhood experiences and the depiction of shrouded images, saying: “My painting is visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, ‘What does that mean?’ It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing, it is unknowable.”
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Stephanie D’Alessandro et al. (2013): Magritte: The Mystery of the Ordinary, 1926-1938
Guido Comis et al. (2019): René Magritte: Life Line
Didier Ottinger (2017): Magritte: The Treachery of Images
Kathleen Rooney et al. (2016): René Magritte: Selected Writings
Siegfried Gohr (2009): Magritte: Attempting the Impossible
