The Lovers (Somali Friends)

1950

Lois Mailou Jones

Painter, American, 1905 - 1998

Shown from the shoulders up, a woman and man, both with brown skin, look at each other in this horizontal portrait painting. Their bodies are angled toward each other and both have black hair, dark eyebrows, and full, coral-red lips. To our left, the woman faces our right in profile. She has a delicate nose and high cheekbones. Her eyes are painted with black lashes over black eyes, without the white of the eye. A gold disk earring hangs from the ear we can see, and she wears white and royal-blue beads in two necklaces. Her hair is combed or styled close to her head, and a swath of brick-red fabric, flecked with golden yellow, wraps around the back of her neck. A scarf with butter-yellow, denim-blue, and red stripes in a plaid pattern is draped across her shoulders, over a rose-pink garment. To our right, the man’s face is angled toward the woman but we see both eyes and the far cheek. His hair is closely cropped and he has a rounded nose, curving brows, and full cheeks. The shadows and folds of his white garment are painted with streaks of teal blue. The background behind the pair is patterned with bands and geometric designs of mustard yellow, scarlet red, and teal, with some stylized leaves in emerald and forest green. The artist signed the work in red paint in the lower right corner, “Lois M. Jones.”

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

Article:  34 Artworks About Love at the National Gallery

From first kisses to tragic romances, our collection abounds with love, in all its forms.


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Gift 1950 from the artist to Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Sr., and Elizabeth Moore;[1] their son, Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr. [1952-1997], Washington; purchased 1998 from his estate through (Hemphill Fine Arts, Washington) by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2015 by the National Gallery of Art.
[1] According to the 1998 acquisition proposal written by Corcoran curator Linda Crocker Simmons, the painting was given to Tibbs and Moore on the occasion of their 1950 marriage; see NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1989

  • African-American Artists, 1880-1987: Selections from the Evans-Tibbs Collection, Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, more than twenty venues, January 1989 - November 1992, no. 26, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q46635759


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