The Coward, Cosmopolitan illustration 1952

Edwin Georgi made this Cosmopolitan illustration, The Coward, with an almost hallucinatory use of color and form. The artist has used a palette of yellows, greens, and browns, creating a juxtaposition between the warmth of the apparition and the cool tones of the war scene. I find the texture particularly striking. It looks like Georgi used short, rapid strokes, almost like he’s stippling the paint onto the surface. This gives the image a kind of flickering, dreamlike quality, especially around the yellow aura of the woman. The way the paint is applied makes the surface feel alive, as if the image is constantly in motion. The woman and the soldier are bound by an invisible tension. It reminds me of Magritte, how he used mundane imagery to explore the subconscious. This feels like a shared fantasy, or a projection of the soldier’s fear and desire. Art doesn't give us answers, it gives us questions.