Love Locked Out
- Artist: Anna Lea Merritt
- Date: 1890
- Medium: Oil paint on canvas
- Dimensions: support: 1156 x 641 mm
- Museum: Tate Britain
- Collection record: Tate Britain website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is the “Love Locked Out” by Anna Lea Merritt. Painted in 1890, it’s a striking oil on canvas that serves as a tender memorial to the artist’s husband, who passed away just two months after they married.
In the picture, a young Cupid presses his forehead against the door of a tomb, his arrow and extinguished lamp lying forgotten on the autumn‑touched ground. The thorny rose curling around the frame hints at love’s pain and persistence, while Cupid himself looks on, patient and forlorn, waiting “for the door of death to open and the reunion of the lonely pair.”
Merritt was a respected professional painter who tackled a variety of subjects, including nudes – a bold choice at a time when many thought women should avoid such themes. “Love Locked Out” struck a chord with audiences; it was exhibited in 1890, quickly bought for the nation, and has since graced several exhibitions worldwide.
The work’s composition—tomb, Cupid, the rose, the arrow—creates a dialogue between love and loss, making the painting as emotionally resonant today as it was then.
See it in person
Love Locked Out is in the collection of Tate Britain on Millbank, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
