Romantic wall art for couples: ten masterworks for a wedding or anniversary

A wedding portrait by Gainsborough, Leighton's newlyweds, a proposal with a rose. Ten love paintings to give, or to hang where you will see them every day.

A young husband in a red tunic pressing his bride's hand to his lips as she leans against him with eyes closed, under a stone arch; painted by Frederic Leighton.

The best wedding and anniversary gifts last, and few things last like a great painting. These ten masterworks from the Love Stories collection were chosen for the wall of a home that two people share: they are tender rather than tragic, beautiful at any size, and each one tells a story worth telling guests. Every one can be printed as it is, whole, on archival paper or canvas, and each has a Fable portrait style so you can have yourselves painted in the same manner.

1. Wedded

A young husband in a red tunic pressing his bride's hand to his lips as she leans against him with eyes closed, under a stone arch; painted by Frederic Leighton.

Frederic Leighton — Wedded, 1882. Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney. Complete composition.

Frederic Leighton's Wedded shows a newly married couple under a stone arch: the bride leans against her husband, eyes closed, as he lifts her hand to his lips. Leighton painted it in 1882.

Warm reds and golds, tall and tender: the obvious wedding picture, and a beautiful one.

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2. The Morning Walk (Mr and Mrs William Hallett)

A young couple walking arm in arm through a wooded landscape, the woman in a silvery gown and wide hat with a white Pomeranian dog at her side, the man in a black suit; painted by Thomas Gainsborough.

Thomas Gainsborough — The Morning Walk (Mr and Mrs William Hallett), 1785. National Gallery, London. Complete composition.

Gainsborough painted William and Elizabeth Hallett on the eve of their wedding in 1785, walking arm in arm through a feathery wood with their dog. It is the classic marriage portrait.

Silver, grey and green: elegance for a hall or staircase.

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3. Romantic Scene in the Belvedere Garden

A young man kneeling to offer a rose to a young woman in a white dress and apron seated in a sunny palace garden, a green dome behind; painted by Julius Victor Berger.

Julius Victor Berger — Romantic Scene in the Belvedere Garden, late 19th century. Complete composition.

In a garden of the Belvedere palace in Vienna, its green dome visible behind, a young man in shirtsleeves kneels to offer a rose to a young woman in a white apron, who considers it with her hand at her chin. Julius Victor Berger paints a proposal with every flower in bloom.

Bright, cheerful and full of flowers: the perfect engagement gift.

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4. Promise of Spring

A young man in a brown tunic leaning over a white marble wall towards a young woman reclining against it in a pale flowered gown, under white blossom; painted by Lawrence Alma-Tadema.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema — Promise of Spring, 1890. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Complete composition.

Alma-Tadema's Promise of Spring shows a young man leaning over a white marble wall to talk to a woman who reclines against it in a flowered gown, white blossom spilling from the tree above. Spring, and love, are just beginning.

White blossom and marble: fresh and light, lovely in a bedroom.

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5. Summer Evening on Skagen's Beach: the Artist and his Wife

A woman in a white dress and a man in a pale suit and straw hat walking arm in arm along a beach at dusk, the moon reflected in the calm blue sea, a dog beside them; painted by Peder Severin Krøyer.

Peder Severin Krøyer — Summer Evening on Skagen's Beach: the Artist and his Wife, 1899. Hirschsprung Collection, Copenhagen. Complete composition.

Krøyer and his wife Marie walk along Skagen beach on a summer night, arm in arm, the moon over the sea and their dog beside them.

Calm, cool and luminous: the most peaceful love painting in the collection.

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6. Conjugal Tenderness

A young man with his arm round his wife, who sits in a white muslin dress in an armchair, in a warm interior with a table and a small dog; painted by Louis-Léopold Boilly.

Louis-Léopold Boilly — Conjugal Tenderness, c. 1807–10. Complete composition.

Louis-Léopold Boilly's Conjugal Tenderness shows a young husband with his arm around his wife as she sits in an armchair in their room, a dog at their feet, papers scattered on a table. It is a small, warm picture of married life around 1810.

Warm browns and white muslin: an intimate picture for a bedroom.

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7. Dance in the City

A man in black evening dress dancing with a woman in a long white satin gown, her back to us, among green palms; painted by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir — Dance in the City, 1883. Musée d'Orsay, Paris. Complete composition.

Renoir's Dance in the City is a tall picture of a couple waltzing, the woman's white satin gown sweeping to the floor. It is the image of a first dance.

Tall and glamorous: right for a narrow wall, or for a couple who met dancing.

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8. Double Portrait of Laurits and Frederikke Tuxen

An elderly man with a white beard and a woman in a black dress with a lace collar sitting side by side on a white garden bench, trees and a timbered house behind; painted by Julius Paulsen.

Julius Paulsen — Double Portrait of Laurits and Frederikke Tuxen, 1907. Skagens Museum. Complete composition.

Julius Paulsen's double portrait of Laurits and Frederikke Tuxen, sitting side by side on their garden bench in 1907, is a picture of love that has lasted.

Dignified and warm: the anniversary picture for a long marriage.

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9. The Kiss

A man in a brown coat embracing and kissing a young woman in a long pale pink gown in the doorway of a red door in a pale panelled salon; painted by Auguste Toulmouche.

Auguste Toulmouche — The Kiss, 1885. Complete composition.

Toulmouche's couple kiss in a scarlet doorway, she in a long blush-pink gown, he in a brown coat, the pale salon behind them full of light.

Blush pink and scarlet: glamorous and romantic.

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10. On the Sailing Boat

A man in a dark coat and a woman in a red dress seen from behind, sitting hand in hand at the prow of a sailing boat, a distant city of spires ahead across pale water; painted by Caspar David Friedrich.

Caspar David Friedrich — On the Sailing Boat, 1818. Hermitage, St Petersburg. Complete composition.

Friedrich's newlyweds sit hand in hand at the prow of a boat, sailing towards a city of spires. It is thought to recall his own honeymoon voyage.

Quiet and symbolic: a picture about a journey begun together.

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Choose by the room: the tall pictures for a hall or beside a bed, the wide ones above a sofa, the dark ones for an evening room. Every painting in the Love Stories collection is restored from a museum or archive scan and printed whole, never cropped.

Walk through the Love Stories room · The Love Stories collection