The works Lajos Gulácsy created at the beginning of the twentieth century predominantly show the fruitful influence of the English Pre-Raphaelites. The female figure in this painting is a reincarnation of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s delicately profiled model, whose features can be recognised in other works by Gulácsy. The painter’s nostalgic way of seeing the world was largely defined by the enormous amount of time he spent in Italy – almost thirteen years, with smaller intervals – between 1902 and 1915. The loving couple, lost in each other’s arms, are immersed in a mystical garden that proclaims the pantheistic unity of nature and humankind. Yet there is simultaneously an expression of the art nouveau sentiment of the age, a longing for an idyllic existence. Gyula Juhász, a contemporary poet and friend, wrote of the painter, “…he was remote from the world that buzzed and bustled all about him.” Inspired by French symbolist poetry, Gulácsy would often evoke sensations that appealed to the different senses. The lush vegetation and the spiralling column of smoke on the right of the painting are both intended to conjure up in the viewer’s mind the aromas of rose and incense.
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