Use of space:

At first glance Carnation Lily, Lily, Rose lacks unity: the eye is drawn to so many aspects of the composition: the brilliant clash of light and color of the girls, the vegetation, and the lantern. Although framed by the vegetation, the girls are also removed from it: their white gowns and movements are still, while the grass swirls around their feet and the flowers curl around. The girls are depicted in a shallow space while the surrounding vegetation and lanterns are abstract. The painting is from a small persons' perspective. The lilies are outsized as if the viewer is seeing them through the eyes of a child, and the light from the Chinese lanterns casts a magical glow over the scene.

Rene Magritte’s painting, The Lovers (1928), is an oil on canvas depicting two individuals locked in an embrace. The figures are kissing one another through veils. They are situated in a room with the back wall, side wall and ceiling showing. The back wall is blue-grey with a lighter shade on the bottom half and a darker shade on the top half. The side wall is brick red with it lighter at the bottom blending to a darker shade through to the top. The ceiling is white and has a decorative trim along the border of the red wall, but it does not continue along the border of the blue-grey wall. The male figure wears a black suit and tie with a solid white shirt. He embraces a woman clad in a red, sleeveless garment with white trim. The woman’s tanned arm is exposed. The man is in a dominant position relative to the woman. She tilts her head up while he leans down to kiss. Both figures have a whitish veil completely covering their faces and necks. On both figures the veils are tight against the front of the face and top of the head and then relax towards the back. The woman’s face is tilted slightly to the left making her lover more prominent and revealing the distinct outline of his nose.

Features

The title of the painting implies that the two people depicted are lovers. The shading of the walls appears to come from a light source that emerges from the floor or lower portion of the space and angles up towards the middle of the room. The light allows for contrast and shading of all the elements in the painting. The painting consists of bold and saturated colors.

When viewing the painting the first thing that stuck out was the colors. They are all solid and bold colors that add to the context of the painting. The walls are a very specific color. The only way to know that the ceiling is in fact a ceiling is the trim along the red wall. The background is overtaken by the rear blue wall yet it is the way these walls are lit that adds to a sense of gloom and even dread. The significance of the red, white and blue walls may have something to do with the time Magritte spent in Paris. (Art Directory) The male figure is in a solid black suit and tie and with the whitish veils the painting comes together with a sense that there is something dark about it aside from the obvious.

The most prominent feature of the painting is the veils. They are also the most intriguing aspect of it. What about this couple needs to be hidden is what I asked myself. However the only part of them that is hidden is their faces. At first I thought that maybe they were an interracial couple since we can only see a small part of the woman’s arm and nothing of the man’s skin color. Another possibility that came to mind was that they may have had some sort of disease or contagion and they only way they were able to show their affection to each other is to kiss through a veil. Then something stood out to me with the way the veils were situated on each of them. The veil of the man is wrapped from the front of him around to the back. At first the veil of the woman seems to only be draped over her but then I noticed the contours of the veil and how they appear to wrap to the back. Perhaps the veils are actually connected and are one piece of cloth. This added to the importance of the veils and the connectedness of the two individuals. Another more sinister aspect of the veils came to light as well. When looking at the veil on the woman the way the folds are formed outline what appears to be a hand with claws. As if the man were reaching inside of the veil and holding onto the back of her head.