The mystery of the mysterious veils in the paintings of Rene Magritte "Lovers"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Lovers (1928) is a series of two paintings by the Belgian surrealist artist Rene Magritte, in which the heads of the figures are mysteriously wrapped in white cloth. As one of the leading figures of the early 20th century surrealist movement, René Magritte shared his talents with a movement that made us look at things in a new light and question our assumptions about what art should be. This is surrealism. What is the mystery of the veiled faces?

Magritte studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Brussels. However, his studies did not bring him either inspiration or satisfaction. Classical education quickly got bored and he wanted a change. His life changed dramatically in 1922 when he completed his compulsory military service and met his future wife Georgette Berger. Soon, in 1927, he met the leading figures of the surrealist movement, including Dali. Thanks to this collaboration, Magritte's art blossomed into his distinctive style, which we know and love to this day.

With his canvases, Magritte constantly asks us to question not only individual experience, but also collective human thinking. This became most evident in his two works "Lovers" and "Lovers II". With these beautiful works, Magritte brings us a shocking commentary on surreal love, while at the same time suggesting a special new type of intimacy.

Lovers I is currently in the Australian National Gallery. The second version - "Lovers II" - is in the collection of Richard S. Zeisler, New York. The paintings were painted in the same year and are of the same size.

First version

In the first version, a man and a woman gently nestle against each other, as if they are posing for a family portrait. The plot is very similar to a holiday shot with glimpses of the greenery of the Normandy coast and the sea. We see a blue sky with light airy clouds. In the background there is a beautiful pastoral landscape with steep grassy hills and an abundance of trees. This is the perfect day for two lovers to be captured in the picture. However, the veils that cover the heads of lovers pull back their faces and seem to roll over the shoulders. This combination of serene, beautiful scenery and two lovers, coupled with almost harrowing head veil imagery, is worrying. After all, not every day we see people willingly deciding to cover their heads with something like a bag. The spontaneous closeness of the characters in this “festive shot” becomes a ghost of alienation and suffocation. Outwardly so absurd, this image becomes frighteningly real in the eyes of reason.

Second version

The second version of the picture is closer, more interesting and more and more disturbing. Here the background is abstract: the figures are in a room with a back wall, side wall and ceiling. The posterior wall is blue-gray with a lighter shade in the lower half and a darker shade in the upper half. It resembles a cloudy sky. The side wall is brick red. The ceiling is white and has decorative trim along the edge of the side wall. The male figure is dressed in a black suit and tie with a white shirt. He hugs a woman in a red sleeveless dress. Open shoulders show off the tan of the heroine. The man occupies a dominant position in relation to the woman. The heads of both figures are depicted with a veil that completely covers their faces and necks. This fabric prevents them from actually making physical contact. In both figures, the veils fit snugly against the front of the face and the crown of the head and fall back. The woman's face is tilted slightly to the left, which makes the man dominant and reveals the clear outline of his nose. The lack of windows also led to a lack of perspective. Blue is associated with calmness or water, which is associated with life. Red is associated here with anger and love, while white is associated with purity. The woman is dressed in red, which can mean love or passion.

The mystery of the veil

These paintings seem rather trivial, but the veils that hide the faces make the paintings much more interesting and make you think about the artist's intention.

Why are they wearing them? What does this mean? Magritte was known for not giving any clarification about his work, so we can only rely on our own thoughts. The origin of this unusual image of lovers can be attributed to several possible reasons.

1. Like many surrealists, Magritte was fascinated by Fantômas, the phantom thriller from the novel and soon the film. As in Magritte's canvases, the identity of Fantômas was not revealed. He appears in films with cloth in disguise. The visuals are indeed similar and the connection to the film is appropriate.

2. The second reason for using the veil may have to do with the tragedy of the artist. This is the suicide of Magritte's mother. In 1912, when Magritte was only thirteen years old, his mother was found drowned in the Sambre River. As the story goes, when her body was recovered from the river, her nightgown was wrapped around her head. Many suggest that this injury influenced the creation of a series of works in which he hid the faces of his characters.

3. The inevitable association that arises at the first glance at the canvas is the saying “love is blind”. Despite the close distance between the characters, two lovers may never become truly spiritually close, they will never be able to fully recognize each other. Also, like Magritte, he depicted these figures, unable to truly feel each other.

Magritte himself did not like all these versions, which spread the secret of his images. Magritte once said that in the process of creating his paintings, he is not an artist, but a person who thought and conveyed his thoughts. He resisted interpretations of his works. For the master, his images were an expression of personal fantasy.

“My paintings are visible images that hide nothing. They evoke a mystery and, indeed, when you see one of my paintings, you ask yourself this simple question: what does it mean? This does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing, it is unknowable. - Rene Magritte

René Magritte's enigmatic interpretation of love becomes an almost labyrinthine trap. Whatever the artist's intentions and whatever the viewer's interpretation, it's easy to recognize the power that the surreal style lends to Magritte's astonishing portraits. Without elements of the surreal movement to support his artistic vision, these works would not be nearly as striking.