The Lovers

A man and a woman stand beneath a great winged figure, a mountain between them, a tree of flame behind the man and a fruiting tree behind the woman. Pamela Colman Smith drew them in 1909 as the card of choice and union — not romance alone but the moment two paths meet. Smith completed the whole deck in a matter of months for a flat fee, and the images that made her the most reproduced illustrator of the century carried, for a century, everyone's name but hers. Find the small 'PCS' monogram at the lower edge. This house restores her credit.

Maker

Pamela Colman Smith, for A. E. Waite

Date

1909

Medium of the original

Plate

Original held by

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Credit

Published London, 1909 · scan: Wikimedia Commons

Rights

Public domain, verified

Catalogue number

PA-00433