Liebespaar

Lovers reflects the height of Expressionist idealism and ecstasy. Here Felixmüller portrays himself with his wife, Londa von Berg, with whom he had just fathered a son in 1918. Their intense, almost mystical union is symbolized by the merging of their two bodies, their crescent-shaped eyes transfixed on a common goal. Felixmüller believed that absolute form was created from a synthesis of male and female, a concept that arose from the teachings of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche. The overlapping forms and hatched modeling are a carry-over from the formal language of Cubism, a powerful influence on Expressionist compositions.