The title “Song of Solomon” refers to the joyful chapter in the Bible that reads like a love poem filled with nature imagery. The lovers in the Song of Solomon are both human characters and at the same time symbolic of a bond with God. In Robert’s painting, lovers embrace on a bed, lit by a lamp and a glowing TV. A soldier with a gun appears on the screen. This is the first painting Robert created for a series of paintings based on Elizabeth’s Smart’s novel, By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept. The novel, published in 1945, was written during WW II. In her book, Smart alludes to the Trojan War, an episode in Greek mythology which links a love triangle with a full-scale war. Robert contrasts love and war, but may be suggesting love is also a kind of battle with one’s own emotions and obsessions. One of the goals of the series is to map or chronicle the variety of emotions that a relationship unleashes: passion, jealousy, anger, anticipation, bewilderment, joy, disappointment, transformation, sacrifice.

A reprint of Millet’s painting The Angelus is seen on the wall in the background. This is a bit of an in-joke. The painting hung on the wall of Robert’s parents’ home in Hantsport for many years. It can clearly be seen in the charcoal drawing Six O’clock News. The lampshade and TV are also repeated from the same room in this family home. The lovers on a bed magically appear as if teleported into this quaint and pious domestic setting.