Museum Folkwang Collection Online
Les amoureux
  • Yves Tanguy

  • Les amoureux, 1929

  • The Lovers
  • Oil on canvas
  • 100 x 81 cm
  • Acquired in 1975 with the support of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Folkwang-Museumsverein
  • Inv. G 411
  • © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
  • CommentaryYves Tanguy was self-taught. Inspired by one of Giorgio de Chirico’s works, he began to paint and soon belonged to a small circle of the Paris avant-garde. For his first individual exhibition in 1927 in the Galerie Surréaliste, André Breton, the Surrealist’s spokesman, described the bizarre forms in his painting and his dream landscapes filled with will o’ the wisp rays. On a surface in various green tones rising from a purple-gray base zone and getting ever lighter, there are individual, pairs and piles of amorphous forms. It thus recalls a dreamy underwater world framed in a diffuse color gradient and precisely delimited construction.
    Tanguy created a boundless landscape populated by strange beings, a faceless personality in an empty space. The first owner of this painting was Tanguy’s fellow Surrealist André Breton. ‘The Lovers’ then came into the private collection of Alfred Barr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
  • Provenance[...]–[...]: André Breton | Alfred Barr, New York | [...]–1975: Pintura Establishment, Vaduz | 1975–heute: Museum Folkwang, Essen
  • Obj_Id: 3,545
  • Obj_Internet_S: ja
  • Obj_Ownership_S (Verantw):Painting, Sculpture, Media Art
  • Obj_SpareNField01_N (Verantw):
  • Obj_Creditline_S: Gemäldesammlung
  • Obj_Title1_S: Les amoureux
  • Obj_Title2_S: The Lovers
  • Obj_PartDescription_S (Titelerg):
  • Obj_SpareMField01_M (Alle Titel): Les amoureux The Lovers
  • Obj_Dating_S: 1929
  • Jahr von: 1,929
  • Jahr bis: 1,929
  • Obj_IdentNr_S: G 411
  • Obj_IdentNrSort_S: G 0411
  • Obj_Classification_S (Objtyp): Painting
  • Obj_Crate_S: 100 x 81 cm
  • Obj_Material_S: Oil on canvas
  • Obj_Technique_S:
  • Obj_SpareSField01_S (Mat./Tech.): Oil on canvas
  • Obj_AccNote_S (Erwerb): Acquired in 1975 with the support of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Folkwang-Museumsverein
  • Obj_PermanentLocation_S (Standort):
  • Obj_Condition1_S (Druckerei):
  • Obj_Condition2_S (Auflage):
  • Obj_Subtype_S (Genre):
  • Obj_Rights_S: © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2024
Commentary
Artists
Provenance

Yves Tanguy was self-taught. Inspired by one of Giorgio de Chirico’s works, he began to paint and soon belonged to a small circle of the Paris avant-garde. For his first individual exhibition in 1927 in the Galerie Surréaliste, André Breton, the Surrealist’s spokesman, described the bizarre forms in his painting and his dream landscapes filled with will o’ the wisp rays. On a surface in various green tones rising from a purple-gray base zone and getting ever lighter, there are individual, pairs and piles of amorphous forms. It thus recalls a dreamy underwater world framed in a diffuse color gradient and precisely delimited construction.
Tanguy created a boundless landscape populated by strange beings, a faceless personality in an empty space. The first owner of this painting was Tanguy’s fellow Surrealist André Breton. ‘The Lovers’ then came into the private collection of Alfred Barr, the founding director of the Museum of Modern Art in New York.