
What is love? ❤️ Love is that little extra something that makes you dream. Love can also be complex. In art, love is a multiple and varied source of inspiration that has always animated and revealed artists. Starting with the legend of Cupid, passing through iconic love stories and taking a closer look at famous works of art inspired by love and entitled “The Kiss”, we invite you to a stroll through love in art a few days before Valentine’s Day.
It’s all thanks to Cupid!

You may already know this, but the representation of love in art is not new. In Roman mythology, Cupid, the son of Venus, the Goddess of Love, and Mars, the God of War, symbolises love at first sight. According to legend, anyone touched by one of Cupid’s arrows is supposed to fall in love with the person he or she meets at that moment. This angel-faced child with his bow and arrow exudes such voluptuous charm that he has become the symbol of Valentine’s Day.
“Love is not only a feeling, it is also an art. Some simple word, a precaution, a nothing reveal to a woman the great and sublime artist who can touch her heart without withering it “
Honoré de Balzac- La Recherche de l’absolu (1834)
Legendary artist couples
Love, this intense feeling between two people, evokes the passionate duos that created the famous myth of the artist and his muse. Love stories that revealed the essential role of the woman-muse-mistress-confidant. These women who, thanks to their personality and their gift of self, were able to instil a creative dynamic in these famous artists:
- Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar (the “weeping woman”, one of his female muse)
- Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera (a tumultuous love in which each fed off the other)
- Salvatore Dalí and Gala (an exclusive love that transcends Dalí’s art)
- Camille Claudel and Auguste Rodin (a passionate love affair that ended tragically)
Emblematic works of art inspired by Love
Love begins with a glance and continues with an exchange of kisses. We have deliberately focused our research on artworks entitled “The Kiss”.
👉 If anyone knows of other works entitled “The Kiss”, please feel free to give me feedback.
“Like love, art is not pleasure but passion”André Malraux
I hope that “love in art” has been of interest to you and invite you to discover the works of our artists in this theme 🔻



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