Engagement ring

An engagement ring is a ring indicating that the person wearing it is engaged to be married, especially in Western cultures. In Western countries, engagement rings are worn mostly by women, and rings can feature diamonds or other gemstones. In some other cultures men and women wear matching rings. In some cultures, engagement rings are also used as wedding rings.

The woman's ring is presented as an engagement gift by a man to his prospective spouse while he proposes marriage or directly after she accepts his marriage proposal. It represents a formal agreement to future marriage.

In Western countries, it is customarily worn on the left hand ring finger, though customs vary across the world.

Before agreeing to marry, a couple may choose to buy and wear pre-engagement rings, also called promise rings. After marrying, the couple may wear both engagement rings and wedding rings, or if they prefer, only the wedding rings. Some brides have their engagement and wedding rings permanently soldered together after marriage.

Engagement Ring (Roy Lichtenstein)

Engagement Ring is a 1961 pop art painting by Roy Lichtenstein. The work is based on the Winnie Winkle series, but Lichtenstein changed both the graphical description and the narrative accompaniment that he presents in a speech balloon. As with most of his early romance comics works, this consisted of "a boy and a girl connected by romantic dialogue and action".

Details

The original source was a Martin Branner panel from the July 16, 1961 Winnie Winkle published in the Chicago Tribune. Measuring 172.1 cm × 201.9 cm (67 3/4 in × 79 1/2 in), Engagement Ring's "patchy" screen of small flesh coloring Ben-Day dots and "staccato" drawing are considered tentative. The general "rawness" of the work links it to Lichtenstein's work from the 1950s, while its "integrated formality" links it to his subsequent works. Lichtenstein used only a few basic colors, with the same red being used for the fingernails, lips, drapes, and wall, while the same yellow provided the color for the hair and the lampshade. Although the painting is considered "a fully characteristic painting, conceptually and manually", it is not as poised a composition as his subsequent works. The style of the painting is described as "dry" and with "the color compression and linear simplification of the comics are dilated to the scale of easel painting". Using a single frame of a comic book source draws the reader in without providing closure with a clear expected outcome and without explaining the circumstances.