Love and Romance Paintings for Sale

The Kiss, and how it became the love painting

The Kiss is an oil on canvas painting with added gold leaf, silver and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was made at some point in 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his Golden Period, and it was exhibited in 1908 under the title Liebespaar, which is German for the loving pair. The painting shows two lovers embracing, their bodies entwined in elaborate robes decorated in a style influenced by the Art Nouveau of the day and by the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement.

He was a founding member of the Vienna Secession and his work helped define Art Nouveau in Europe. His primary subject was the female body, and his figurative work is marked by a frank eroticism. That combination, gold ornament over a real embrace, is why this is the image most people think of when they think of love in art, and it is the best selling Klimt in our catalogue. The Bride comes from the end of his life and was left unfinished, which makes it a quieter option for the same wall.

A note on colour, because it matters with this one. The gold in the original is metal leaf, and in a hand-painted reproduction it is pigment, mixed and layered by the artist to read as gold under the light in your room. It is the reason a printed version of The Kiss always looks wrong: the shine in a print is flat, and in paint it moves when you do.

Choosing one as a gift

Most people arrive at this page for a wedding, an engagement or an anniversary, and there are three practical things worth knowing before you order. First, the time. Every canvas here is painted to order by hand, so it is not a same day gift; order with the date in mind and you will have the photograph for approval well before it is needed. Second, the size. A love painting is usually hung in a bedroom, a hallway or above a fireplace, so measure the wall first and take roughly two thirds of the free width as the canvas width. Third, the pair. Two portraits of the same size in the same frame, one for each side of a bed or a doorway, is the arrangement couples like most.

For a first anniversary a small canvas of The Kiss is the obvious present and there is nothing wrong with obvious. For a tenth, a couple portrait in the Arnolfini or Jewish Bride register says more, because it is a picture of two people staying rather than two people starting. And if you want the piece to be about your own story rather than about art history, choose the work that looks like the day you remember, which is the only rule that matters in this room.

Before you order a love painting

What is the most famous love painting? The Kiss by Gustav Klimt, painted in 1907 and 1908 and exhibited in 1908 as Liebespaar, the loving couple. It is an oil painting with added gold leaf, silver and platinum, and it is the best selling Klimt in our catalogue.

Which love painting works best as a wedding gift? A couple portrait rather than a myth subject. The Arnolfini Portrait, The Jewish Bride or a wedding feast scene all read as a marriage rather than as a romance, which is what people keep on the wall for decades.

Are these romantic paintings hand-painted? Yes. Each one is painted in oil on canvas by a studio artist in seven sizes, with an optional frame, and you approve a photograph of the finished canvas before it ships. We print nothing.