25 Famous Works of Art Inspired By Love

1. Auguste Rodin’s The Kiss (c. 1882) depicts a 13th-century Italian noblewoman and her brother-in-law – a forbidden love symbolized by the lack of touch between the couples lips.

2. Sculpted in 1935, Three Forms by Dame Barbara Hepworth not only

represents the beginning of her signature non-figurative works, but it is also a token of love towards her then-newborn triplets.

3. Showcasing the infamous

moment of Adam’s temptation, Adam and Eve (1526) by Lucas Cranach the Elder is a classic portrait of civilization’s most classic couple.

4. Tina Modotti (1923) is one of countless images by famed American

photographer Edward Weston of his lover and muse whom he, for a time, lived with and photographed extensively in Mexico.

5. The Love Embrace of

the Universe, the Earth (Mexico), Myself, Diego, and Señor Xoltotl (1949) by Frida Kahlo depicts the famously tumultuous relationship between the artist and her husband Diego Rivera who, despite his depiction here as a child, was in fact twenty years her senior.

6. Always one in favor of

the fantastical, Jeff Koons unveiled his stainless steel Sacred Heart (Red/Gold) (1994-2007) on the roof of Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2006.

7. Danish painter

Vilhelm Hammershoi almost exclusively painted somber interior images of his own home, veering only occasionally to include his wife Ida as seen here in Interior with Young Woman from Behind (1904).

8. An opulent pink spectacle

made in his signature fluorescent lights, Dan Flavin’s untitled (to Tracy, to celebrate the love of a lifetime) (1992) was installed at the Guggenheim Museum as an ode to his fiancée and also acted as the backdrop for their wedding ceremony.

9. While the original

The Kiss (1907-08) by Constantic Brancusi is housed in the artist’s native Romania, several plaster replicas can be found from Philadelphia to Paris.

10. Oh, Jeff...I

Love You, Too...But… (1964) was one of the first explorations in pointilist comic book-inspired works for American artist Roy Lichtenstein.

11. Diane Arbus, Love-In, Central Park, New York City (1969) by Garry

Winogrand portrays his fellow photographer Diane Arbus at work; the two exhibited together at the Museum of Modern Art just two years prior along with Lee Friedlander.

12. Housed in

St. Peter’s Basilica, Michelangelo’s Pietà (1498-99) was completed when the artist was just 24 years old.

13. Jan van Eyck’s

Arnolfini Portrait (1434) is famed for its inclusion of several symbolic elements including the single candle representing the ever-present eye of God and the small dog representing fidelity.

14. The lips in Man Ray’s Observatory Time: The Lovers (1966) are

emblematic of the artist’s deceased lover Lee Miller’s mouth and later acted as inspiration for the logo of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

15. Marc Chagall

was famed for his ability to use a very limited color palette to amplify his subjects as seen here in Blue Lovers (1914).

16. Perhaps the

most iconic image of lovers from the 20th century, Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss was created during Vienna’s Art Nouveau period – as depicted by the inclusion of authentic gold leaf – though several influences of Japanese prints are also employed.

17. Although a

student of Klimt’s, Egon Schiele made a huge departure from his teacher when he began depicting more nude imagery like Lovers (1911) seen here.

18. Bernini’s Apollo

and Daphne (1622-25) depicts the tale of Apollo who lusts after the beautiful Daphne even after she changes form to a tree following a bout with Cupid’s love-repelling arrow.

19. Perhaps most

viewed in its rendition seen here in New York City, Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE (1966-1999) has been reproduced as the Museum of Modern Art Christmas card in 1964 and as a U.S. postage stamp in 1973.

20. Dedicated to his lover who died of AIDS complications in 1991,

Untitled (Perfect Lovers) (1987-1990) by Felix Gonzalez-Torres has very explicit instructions for its reproduction including that the clocks must always be touching and on a wall painted light blue.

21. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room - Love Forever

(1996) is made up of a box equipped with mirrors facing one another to create an optical illusion of endless depth.

22. British artist Tracy Emin is famed for her incorporation of

the personal and the industrial as seen here in her neon sign titled Love is What You Want (2011).

23. I Love Your Kiss Forever Forever (1964) is not only exemplary of Andy Warhol’s

tendency towards repetition, but it is also one of the first instances of his depictions of Marilyn Monroe whom he continued to use as a muse for much of his career.

24. René Magritte’s The Lovers

(1928) is a harrowing depiction of isolating love as the pair are kept apart by mere fabric, preventing a fully loving embrace.

25. Jean-Honoré

Fragonard’s 18th century masterpiece The Fountain of Love (1785) portrays a young couple rushing towards a fountain straight out of classical antiquity that acted as a well of magical waters within which Cupid dipped his arrows.

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