Love is one of the most powerful emotions that someone can experience, it can make us do great as well as stupid decisions that we would not normally do. So, it is no surprise that painters throughout history have been fascinated by such emotions between couples and have created amazingly detailed paintings of those very special moments.
The beauty of love is that no matter where you happen to live in the world, what your background is, and how rich you are you will still react the same way when you happen to fall in love with someone. This is great for painters, as it lets them capture this happy and emotional moment at its most real, since true love cannot be faked.
Below we have featured some of those incredible paintings by famous painters, who capture the powerful emotion of love in young and old couples from different parts of the world in these paintings of great artists with couples in love.
Painting Title: The Farewell of Telemachus and Eucharis. Artist: Jacques-Louis David. Date Created: 1818. European Paintings.
This early 19th-century painting depicts two young lovers embracing, although it is a fairly recent painting it depicts two fictional Greek mythological characters with the male being called Telemachus while the female is called Eucharis. Telemachus is the son of Odysseys of the famous Ancient Greek poem Odyssey, where he is depicted as a brave hero with superhuman qualities of intelligence and physicality.
The painting itself is based as part of a French novel developing further the stories of the Greek legends, where Telemachus must leave in order to search for his father who has gone missing. The misery of what is going on is exemplified in the painting with Eucharis, the female longingly hugging her lover while he tightly grips her thigh and holding a spear in his other hand.
This painting was completed in 1818 by French painter Jacques-Louis David while he was self-exiled in Belgium due to his unapproved of the new French government after the fall of Napoleon.
He has a unique painting style that features a lot of bright and vibrant colors for the clothing and other items in the painting while the people themselves have very pale complexions.
Painting Title: Marriage Portrait of Isaac Massa and Beatrix van der Laen. Artist: Frans Hals. Date Created: 1622. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
In this painting, you have a happy couple sitting on a rock under a tree, with a stylish mansion in the background that also features a few other people in the distance. The setting of this painting is the aftermath of a wedding between a prominent Dutch grain trade from Haarlem called Isaac Massa along with his new wife Beatrix van der Laen who is sitting to his right with a big smile on her face. It is believed that this oil canvas painting was created in 1622.
The painter, Frans Hals is said to have been close friends with the couple, with Hals completing multiple portraits of Massa throughout his career. A lot of attention to detail is featured in this painting, for example, you have the wedding ring displayed prominently on the woman’s hand that is arched over her new husband’s shoulder.
Also, there are other hidden messages that may be hard to catch such as the addition of ivy next to her feet which means that she is a good loyal wife.
Furthermore, this is a very unique painting, as the subjects in it are not posing in the traditional way that was popular at the time, instead, they do not have any proper posture and seem at ease without any care in the world about posing or what people will think about them. For example, the male in the painting has his hand on his chest while the woman has her arm over the male’s shoulder.
Painting Title: Portrait of Abraham Casteleyn and his Wife, Margarieta van Bancken. Artist: Jan de Bray. Date Created: 1663. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Here in this painting, we have a more elderly couple enjoying themselves outside in their garden patio, on their left they have many books to their side as well as a globe which signifies how the male, Abraham Casteleyn made his money. Casteleyn was an owner of a printing press in the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.
At the height of his career, he owned a newspaper called the Haarlemse Courant which was one of the first newspapers in the world. His wife is Margarieta van Bancken who worked for her husband’s printing press and continued to run it after her husband’s death.
Behind them is a big statue bust of Laurens Janszoon Coster who is widely seen as the inventor of the printing press, it is yet another hint alluding to how this wealthy and influential couple made their money, and also it may be because they looked up to this famous Dutch figure as he was the founding father of the industry where they collectively made their name.
This portrait painting was done in 1663 by Jan de Bray who was a Dutch painter that was part of the Dutch Golden Age that saw significant developments of the arts, sciences, and military during a very short amount of time.
Painting Title: Isaac and Rebecca, known as ‘The Jewish Bride’. Artist: Rembrandt van Rijn. Date Created: 1665-1669. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
This mysterious painting features a tall middle-aged man holding his lover by the chest with his left hand and grasping her from the back and holding her on her right shoulder with his right hand.
It is a fairly simple and powerful painting that lacks an abundance of items in the background apart from a house plant located on the right-hand side behind the female. The rest of the background is not really clear, it is a very dark background with hues of light brown and red.
There are many theories to do with who the subjects in this painting are, but there is no conclusive evidence to determine this.
Despite the name of the painting, the religion is also not certain, instead, the name originates from a now-debunked theory that the subjects are a Jewish father gifting an expensive necklace to his daughter. Other theories include that they are family members of the painter or are a couple from the Old Testament Bible.
This intriguing painting is by Rembrandt who is seen as one of the greatest Dutch painters in history, much of his art is influenced by Italian art as well as by other top Dutch painters and artists of other kinds.
Painting Title: VOC Senior Merchant. Artist: Aelbert Cuyp. Date Created: 1640-1660. Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Displayed prominently to the left side of this painting is a wealthy couple, the male is Jakob Martensen who was a senior merchant working for the Dutch East India Company. Martensen is holding his wife’s hand with his right hand while pointing towards the Javanese harbor that is full of multiple ships that are flying the flag of the Dutch Empire.
In the painting, there is also a local Javanese servant who is holding an umbrella-like shade over the couple which again represents their significant wealth and power. Moreover, the Batavia Castle is also visible in the painting; it was built by the Dutch to reinforce their power and influence over their profitable trading roots in the region.
This painted is by Aelbert Cuyp who drew it between 1640 and 1660 during his expedition of the Dutch East Indies. Cuyp is a well-respect Dutch painter part of the Dutch Golden Age that throughout his short career created many notable pieces of art, his career was cut short after he got married to a religious woman, and he instead decided to focus on his Christian faith.
Read the post: Paintings with Beautiful Ballerinas
