Hans Tietze and Erica Tietze-Conrat | Oskar Kokoschka (Austrian, 1886—1890)
1909, oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 53 5/8” (76.5 x 136.2 cm)
Ohhh my goodness. Believe it or not, I’ve been searching for this painting for a very long time. I remember seeing it in an art book or something in my senior year of high school. I just didn’t remember what it was called (who would?), or who it was by.
Fun fact: Turns out, the name of the artist is the same name as one of the boarders in Hey Arnold!
Anyway, I’m so excited that I finally finally found this. It always intrigued me—all the colors, and the way the couple is not making eye contact, or even touching (although they’re so close). The hands, are of course, the main focus of this. The distance between their hands is so minute, yet you can’t help but notice focus on it. And the distance between us and the sitters seems so great too. We’re looking right at them, they’re sitting there right in front of us. But our vision is hazy, we can’t focus on their faces very well, it seems. I mean, try looking into her eyes. Can you? Not really. All these thing combine to create an atmosphere of tense energy that feels both uneasy and romantic.
It’s beautiful, and it obviously made a strong impression on me since I remembered it even years later. I had even made a sketch of it from memory in one of my sketchbooks, with a note underneath that said, “FIND OUT WHO DID THIS PAINTING!!!” Finally.
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