This newlywed portrait registers the couple's mutual rediscovery, from the awkward tenderness of his hand on her shoulder, to the stiffness with which she folds her body into his.
Kertész specialized in scenes of lyrical intimacy and solitude, exactly the sentiments expressed in this self-portrait with his Hungarian wife Elizabeth. After years of fitful courtship, she had joined him in Paris in 1931 and they married two years later. Undoubtedly, the couple needed to adjust to each other after their extended separation, during which Kertész had discovered himself professionally and personally as well (he even married, briefly, another Hungarian émigré). This newlywed portrait registers the couple's mutual rediscovery, from the awkward tenderness of his hand on her shoulder, to the stiffness with which she folds her body into his. One has the impression that the participants in this image are evolving before our eyes toward a new relationship. In this sense, the portrait is not a still image and even less a commemorative picture, but rather the stage for an evolving narrative