Lovers

This has got to be one of my absolute favourites. Egon Schiele. I'm enchanted by almost all his paintings, but this one takes my breath away. So much conveyed with such minimalism!
Their bodies are far from what you would call 'in-shape'...but that is what, i think, makes it even more appealing and real; lends to it a warmth that you almost want to reach out and touch.
And their expressions...so, so in love,achingly so and yet helpless...lovers who are perhaps destined not to meet, to be together; a fate they are aware of, and have reconciled to...A post-coital scene, there seems to be no hurry, no rush to get back to the vagaries of life...The desire, the longing to quietly soak in the brief moment of togetherness, stripped of all inhibition and falsity, is beautifully conveyed. Not a stroke more, not a colour extra to mar the sombreness of the mood!