The lovers
Museum of Modern Art, New York City
The Lovers is a 1928 painting by the Belgian Surrealist René Magritte, held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It shows a man and a woman kissing while their heads remain wrapped in grey cloth, two anonymous, almost sibling-like figures trying to kiss one another through their coverings, an image one critic has described as producing a gaping sense of erotic alienation[1]. Magritte painted a second version of the composition the same year, now held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. He trained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and worked for years as a wallpaper designer and commercial artist before a 1925 encounter with the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico redirected him toward the mysterious, dreamlike juxtapositions that became his subject[2]. When his first solo exhibition in Brussels in 1927 met a poor reception, he moved to Paris and spent three years immersed in the circle around André Breton, though Breton never formally recognised him as a Surrealist[3][4]. Some writers have connected the cloth-covered heads that recur across Magritte's work of these years to his mother's suicide by drowning when he was young, her body reportedly found with her dress covering her face, though Magritte always denied any such connection[2]. Whatever its private roots, The Lovers remains one of the starkest images Magritte ever produced of two people unable to reach each other.
Where it is held
Held at Museum of Modern Art, New York City, United States.
The painting is held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. A second version of the composition, painted the same year, is held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
Other versions are held at National Gallery of Australia.
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Canberra, Australia
Two anonymous, sibling-like heads
The Lovers shows a man and a woman locked in a kiss, both heads entirely wrapped in grey cloth. One critic described the two figures as anonymous but sibling-like, trying to kiss one another through their integuments of grey cloth, an image that produces what he called a gaping sense of erotic alienation[1]. Another has called it one of the most chilling icons in modern art of the frustration of sexual communion, the cloth substituting concealment for the intimacy the embrace seems to promise[5]. The painting withholds exactly what a kiss is meant to deliver: recognition of the other person's face.
From wallpaper design to de Chirico
Magritte trained at the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Brussels from the age of eighteen. After graduating he worked as a wallpaper designer and commercial artist, painting in a Cubist-Futurist style in his spare time[2]. Around 1925 he encountered the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico, whose eerie, depopulated cityscapes de Chirico called pittura metafisica, and the effect on Magritte's own work was immediate: by 1926 he had arrived at the disconcerting, mystery-laden images, among them The Lost Jockey and The Menaced Assassin, that mark the start of his mature style[2]. De Chirico's influence extended across the Surrealist generation, shaping not only Magritte but Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst and Yves Tanguy, all of whom emerged from his early, illusionistic example[5].
Rejected in Brussels, adopted in Paris
Magritte's first solo exhibition, held at the Galerie Le Centaure in Brussels in 1927, met a poor critical reception[3]. He moved to Paris that year and spent three years there immersed in the Surrealist circle around André Breton, exhibiting by 1929 alongside Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp, de Chirico, Max Ernst, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Francis Picabia and Yves Tanguy[3]. Even so, Breton never officially recognised him as a member of the movement[4]. Unlike Surrealist colleagues who leaned on chance effects or exoticism, Magritte staked his contribution on what one critic called hallucinatory ordinariness, ordinary objects such as an apple, a bowler hat or a cloud combined in ways that subverted their everyday naming[5].
Common questions
What does Magritte's The Lovers show?
It shows a man and a woman kissing with their heads completely wrapped in grey cloth, an image read as a portrait of frustrated intimacy rather than a straightforward embrace[1].
Are there two versions of The Lovers?
Yes. Magritte painted a second version in 1928, held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, alongside the version at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
Sources
Editorial draws on the following references, verified against the museum and public-domain image record for this work.
- [1] book Robert Hughes, The Shock of the New, 1980 Used for: this artwork.
- [2] book Susie Hodge, Art: Everything You Need to Know About the Greatest Artists and Their Work Used for: this artwork.
- [3] book Hodge, Susie;, Artists at Home Used for: this artwork.
- [4] book Penelope J.E. Davies, Walter B. Denny, Frima Fox Hofrichter, Joseph Jacobs, Ann S. Roberts, David L. Simon, Janson's History of Art_ The Western Tradition (8th Edition) Used for: this artwork.
- [5] book Robert Hughes, Nothing If Not Critical Used for: this artwork.
- [6] book Susie Hodge, Artists and Their Pets Used for: this artwork.
Editorial overseen by Solis Prints. Sources verified 2026-09-03. Click a source for details, or hover over [N] in the page above to preview.
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