Ten famous love stories in art, and the paintings that tell them

Paolo and Francesca, Romeo and Juliet, Tristan and Isolde, Abelard and Heloise. The great love stories of literature and legend, each told in a single painting.

Ruth in a pale headscarf and green dress holding sheaves of barley while Boaz, in a red robe, bends his head to hers in a golden field; painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Long before the cinema, painters were the great storytellers of love. They took the couples everyone knew from poems, plays, operas and scripture and chose the one moment that held the whole story: a first kiss over a book, a farewell at dawn, an embrace in a forest. Here are ten of those couples, from the Bible to Wagner, each in a painting from the Fable Love Stories collection, with the story behind it.

1. Ruth and Boaz

Ruth in a pale headscarf and green dress holding sheaves of barley while Boaz, in a red robe, bends his head to hers in a golden field; painted by Dante Gabriel Rossetti.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti — Ruth and Boaz, c. 1855. Complete composition.

In the Book of Ruth, a young widow follows her mother-in-law to Bethlehem and gleans barley in the fields of Boaz, who notices her, protects her and marries her. Rossetti paints the two among the sheaves, standing so close that their robes merge into one shape, Boaz bending his head to hers. It is one of the oldest love stories there is, and one of the gentlest.

A quiet, devotional picture in deep reds and greens: right for a reading corner or a bedroom.

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2. Eloisa and Abelard

Abelard in a green patterned cloak leaning over to kiss Heloise, who sits at a wooden lectern in a red dress with a book open, stained-glass windows behind; illustration by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale.

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale — Eloisa and Abelard, c. 1911. Book illustration. Complete composition.

Peter Abelard was the most famous teacher in twelfth-century Paris and Heloise was his brilliant pupil. Their affair ended in scandal, separation and two lifetimes in the Church, but their letters made them the patron saints of lovers. Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale shows the moment it began: the tutor leaning over the lectern to kiss the student in red, her book still open in front of her.

Rich as a page from an illuminated book, with stained glass and scarlet: a gift for anyone who loves to read.

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3. Paolo and Francesca

Paolo embracing and kissing Francesca, who sits in a pale satin gown, in a dim room with a lectern and green curtain, while a man with a drawn sword approaches from the shadows; painted by Pierre Claude François Delorme.

Pierre Claude François Delorme — Paolo and Francesca, 1820. Complete composition.

In the fifth canto of Dante's Inferno, Francesca da Rimini tells how she and her husband's brother Paolo were reading the romance of Lancelot and Guinevere together, and at the moment of the lovers' kiss they kissed too: 'that day we read no further.' Delorme paints the kiss itself while in the shadows behind them the husband draws his sword.

Theatrical and candlelit, with the drama in the shadows: a striking picture for a dark wall.

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4. Romeo and Juliet

Romeo, in a plumed hat and striped hose, holding Juliet in a golden gown in a stone doorway as he leaves at dawn; painted by Francesco Hayez.

Francesco Hayez — Romeo and Juliet, before 1881. Complete composition.

Shakespeare gives Romeo and Juliet a single night together. At dawn Romeo must leave Verona or be killed, and Juliet begs him to stay: 'It was the nightingale, and not the lark.' Hayez, who painted love scenes all his life, shows that last embrace on the threshold of her room, Romeo already halfway out into the morning.

Gold silk, striped hose and Venetian light: the most romantic costume drama in the collection.

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5. Tristan and Isolde (Life)

Tristan in a dark red tunic and a crown holding Isolde, whose long hair falls down her back, in a deep embrace against a misty background; painted by Rogelio de Egusquiza.

Rogelio de Egusquiza — Tristan and Isolde (Life), 1912. Complete composition.

Tristan is sent to bring the Irish princess Isolde home as his uncle's bride, and on the voyage they drink a love potion meant for her wedding night. The medieval story became Wagner's opera, which the Spanish painter Rogelio de Egusquiza adored. He painted the lovers twice, as Life and as Death. This is Life: the two locked together in a single dark shape, as if nothing could part them.

Moody and almost sculptural, in browns and dusky greens: a picture of pure feeling.

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6. Lancelot and Guinevere

Lancelot in chain mail embracing Queen Guinevere in a white gown beside a lattice window in a stone castle wall; illustration by N. C. Wyeth.

N. C. Wyeth — Lancelot and Guinevere, 1917. The Boy's King Arthur (Scribner, 1917). Complete composition.

Lancelot, the best of King Arthur's knights, loved Arthur's queen, and their love brought down the Round Table. N. C. Wyeth painted this scene for The Boy's King Arthur in 1917: the knight in mail, the queen in white, a moment alone beneath a castle window before the story turns to ruin.

Bold, clear and cinematic, by one of America's great illustrators: a picture that reads from across a room.

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7. Faust and Gretchen

Faust in a dark cloak bending to kiss Gretchen, who wears a shimmering gold gown, in a dim interior with heavy curtains; painted by Pedro Américo.

Pedro Américo — Faust and Gretchen, late 19th century. Complete composition.

In Goethe's Faust, the scholar who sold his soul seduces the innocent Gretchen, and her love for him destroys her. The Brazilian painter Pedro Américo shows the two in a curtained room, Faust bending to kiss her as she turns towards him in a gown of gold, the light falling only on her.

Warm golds against a deep red room: a rich, dramatic picture for a dining room.

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8. Elsa and Lohengrin

Elsa with long golden hair embracing a dark-haired man in a jewelled cap and gold cloak beside dark water under lilac blossom; painted by Gaston Bussière.

Gaston Bussière — Elsa and Lohengrin, 1910. Musée des Ursulines, Mâcon. Complete composition.

In Wagner's Lohengrin, a mysterious knight arrives in a boat drawn by a swan to defend Elsa, and marries her on one condition: she must never ask his name. Gaston Bussière, who painted Wagner's heroines again and again, shows the lovers embracing beside dark water, her pale hair against his jewelled cap.

Jewel colours, lilac blossom and moonlit water: a romantic Symbolist picture for an evening room.

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9. Daphnis and Chloe

Chloe in a white tunic with her arm around Daphnis, who sits half-turned holding wild flowers, at the edge of a wood at sunset; painted by Camille-Félix Bellanger.

Camille-Félix Bellanger — Daphnis and Chloe, 1893. Complete composition.

Longus's ancient Greek novel tells of two foundlings raised by shepherds on Lesbos who fall in love without knowing what love is. Bellanger paints them on a bench at the edge of a wood, Chloe's arm round Daphnis's neck, a little bunch of wild flowers in his hand.

Sunlit and innocent: the sweetest version of the story in the collection.

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10. Arminius Bids Farewell to Thusnelda

The bearded warrior Arminius in mail and armour with his arm round Thusnelda, who has long blond hair and a gold circlet, as he prepares to leave; painted by Johannes Gehrts.

Johannes Gehrts — Arminius Bids Farewell to Thusnelda, 1884. Complete composition.

Arminius, the Germanic chief who destroyed three Roman legions in AD 9, was married to Thusnelda, whom he had taken against her father's will. Johannes Gehrts paints him in armour with his arm round her as he leaves for war, while she rests her hand on his shoulder. Later she would be captured by the Romans and paraded in Rome.

A heroic, northern picture full of metal and gold: one for lovers of myth and history.

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Every painting here is from the Love Stories collection, restored from a museum or archive scan and printed whole, never cropped. Walk through all of them in the Love Stories room, where they hang in the order they were painted, from Boucher's shepherds to the last romantics of the 1930s.

Walk through the Love Stories room · The Love Stories collection