Bed floating in a river art?

June 23, 2007 6:09 AM

Is anyone familiar with a surreal painting that shows a man and a woman lying in a bed that is floating down a river?

I remember seeing it a while ago, but I can't remember the artist's name or the name of the painting. I believe it is oil on canvas, and it has a very dreamlike feel to it. Googling "bed floating down river painting" and other similar phrases get lots of hits, but none are correct.

posted by kuujjuarapik to media & arts (5 comments total)

Sounds like something painted by Henri Rousseau, but I didn't find that specific image.
posted by anitar at 7:25 AM on June 23, 2007

Nope, definitely not Rousseau. It might be more modern than the Surrealists, but the image is surreal. And the painting itself is more realistic than stylized. Something about it reminded me of Fur Traders Descending the Missouri by Bingham at the Met.

I only saw a print of this painting, but for some reason I think it is French or in a French museum.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 8:03 AM on June 23, 2007

Float Aimless Moonshine by Erika Somogyi.




I once considered getting this as a tattoo, and even though I've read Askmefi religiously for a few months, I totally paid the $5 to open an account just to post this answer.
posted by lizzicide at 8:32 AM on June 23, 2007 [4 favorites]

Welcome, lizzicide. I think you'll get along just fine here.
posted by mds35 at 11:14 AM on June 23, 2007

Wow, thanks lizzicide. I guess I owe you $5 for the try. That's a good one and it conveys the same feeling as the one I'm thinking of. However, that's not the painting. The one I'm thinking of has the couple floating downstream from left to right while lying in an old four poster bed, and I think there may be a candle in there somewhere. And I saw it sometime in the late 90's, so it is at least that old. And it's a little on the dark side, color-wise.
posted by kuujjuarapik at 12:09 PM on June 23, 2007