Lovers

Lovers by Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka, dated 1902, addresses the subject of romantic intimacy in the heightened, symbolic manner characteristic of this Hungarian visionary. Csontváry rarely painted conventional genre subjects, and his treatment of lovers would be expected to carry cosmic or spiritual overtones beyond simple observation of a couple. The work belongs to a period when his style was developing rapidly toward the monumental, colour-saturated compositions that would define his mature reputation, and even a small intimate subject was potentially freighted with the existential intensity he brought to everything he painted. The work is currently without recorded institutional location.

Csontváry's treatment of the figures shows the heightened colour and emotional intensity that set him apart from academic portraiture. His handling of the couple's proximity and the emotional charge between them takes precedence over purely observational description, the figures charged with an almost magnetic relationship.