Wedding gifts for couples: 12 artworks to start a home
The first real art on a couple’s walls: Monet’s river, Homer’s coast, Hokusai’s Fuji, a Renoir for the kitchen and a portrait of their first house. Twelve wedding gifts that will outlast the toaster.
Most wedding gifts are for the kitchen. The one couples remember is the first piece of real art on their walls: a picture they did not have to choose together, but that both of them love.
The twelve works below are chosen for a new home: calm landscapes for the living room, still lifes for the kitchen, a winter picture for the hallway. Two are the starting points of Fable’s portrait styles, so you can give the couple a painting of their own first home or their wedding flowers, made from a photo with a free preview first.
1. The Petite Creuse River
Claude Monet, The Petite Creuse River, 1889. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.
Monet spent the spring of 1889 in the Creuse valley in central France, painting the same river at different times of day. Calm, silvery and endlessly restful.
For above the sofa in a first living room.
2. Sunshine and Shadow, Prout's Neck
Winslow Homer, Sunshine and Shadow, Prout's Neck, 1894. Watercolor, with rewetting and blotting, over graphite, on thick, rough-textured, ivory wove paper. Art Institute of Chicago.
Winslow Homer lived at Prout’s Neck on the coast of Maine and painted the sea there for the rest of his life. This 1894 watercolour is all rock, water and light.
For a couple who met by the sea.
3. Maine Coast, Mt. Desert Island
Frederic Edwin Church, Maine Coast, Mt. Desert Island, 1850s. Oil and graphite on cardboard. Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Frederic Edwin Church, the great American painter of wilderness, made this oil sketch on Mount Desert Island in the 1850s. A burst of sunset over the Atlantic.
Warm and dramatic for a hallway or dining room.
4. Fuji from Ushibori, Province of Hitachi
Katsushika Hokusai, Fuji from Ushibori, Province of Hitachi, 1760–1849. Color woodblock print. Cleveland Museum of Art.
From Hokusai’s Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji: a cargo boat on the Ushibori marsh at dawn, Fuji calm in the distance. A picture of patience.
For a minimal, calm bedroom.
5. The Old Mill
George Inness, The Old Mill, 1849. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.
George Inness painted this old mill in 1849, early in his long career: a golden afternoon, a still wheel, a sense of everything in its place.
Golden and green; perfect for a country kitchen.
6. The Lonely Farm, Nantucket
George Inness, The Lonely Farm, Nantucket, 1892. Oil on canvas. Art Institute of Chicago.
Inness painted this lonely farm on Nantucket in 1892, a tiny house under a huge sky. It is the feeling of having a place of your own in a big world.
7. The Red Kerchief
Claude Monet, The Red Kerchief, c. 1868–73. Oil on fabric. Cleveland Museum of Art.
Monet painted his wife Camille passing the window in the snow, a flash of red against white. One of the most romantic pictures of married life ever made.
A loving picture for a couple’s bedroom or hallway.
8. Interior, after Dinner
Claude Monet, Interior, after Dinner, 1868–1869. Oil on canvas.
Monet’s interior after dinner, painted in 1868 to 1869, shows the quiet hour after a meal: a lamp over the table, the coffee cups still out, family close by.
For a dining room where many dinners will happen.
9. Still Life with Peaches and Grapes
Auguste Renoir, Still Life with Peaches and Grapes, 1881. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Renoir painted peaches and grapes in 1881 with soft, warm light. The perfect first painting for a new kitchen.
10. Still Life with Cake
Raphaelle Peale, Still Life with Cake, 1818. Oil on wood. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Raphaelle Peale was one of America’s first still life painters. His cake and wine are small, precise and quietly celebratory: a toast to the couple.
11. A Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase
Nicolaes van Veerendael, A Bouquet of Flowers in a Crystal Vase, 1662. Oil on canvas. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Veerendael’s crystal vase of flowers is the masterwork behind one of Fable’s flower styles. Send a photo of the wedding bouquet and see it painted the same way.
Best photo: the bouquet laid on a table or in a vase, in daylight.
Create your portrait in this style
12. Villa on a Moonlit Night
Peder Severin Krøyer, Villa on a Moonlit Night, 1872. Oil on canvas.
Krøyer painted this villa under the moon, its windows glowing orange in the blue night. The style built from it paints the couple’s first home, lights on.
Best photo: their house at dusk with the lights on.
Create your portrait in this style
If you are not sure of their taste, choose a calm landscape; it works in any room. If you know them well, give them their own house or bouquet as a painting.
Questions
Is art a good wedding gift?
Yes. A print of a masterpiece is lasting and personal, and it gives a couple’s new home its first real artwork. Choose something calm that suits many rooms.
Can I give a portrait of the couple’s house?
Yes. Send a clear photo of the house and choose a style such as Krøyer’s Villa on a Moonlit Night; you will see a free preview before you order.
Can I make a painting from their wedding bouquet?
Yes. Fable’s flower styles, such as the Crystal Vase Bouquet, paint flowers from a photo, a lovely gift after the wedding.