LOVE OF BEAUTY

In your light I learn how to love. In your beauty, how to make poems. You dance inside my chest where no-one sees you, but sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art
— RUMI
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What do any of us want out of life? …To be in LOVE! A love of beauty around us and within each other! We want to be in it, of it! It intoxicates the mind, body, and soul with all its mystery, magic, and thoughtfulness. You are filled to the brim with living! Love transforms the world around you. It illuminates possibilities in darkened places of life where there were none.  

Love is an unexplainable force that is more powerful than anything. If you are lucky enough to have found it, it will scare you, keep you awake, yet give you peace and let you rest all at the same time
— Barbara De Angelis

Out of any human experience, it is the experience of being or falling in love that has inspired some of humanity’s greatest works of art and continues to be an indestructible force that serves as fertile grounds for inspiration for artists in every creative field.  From soul-gripping sonnets to heart-pounding choreography to poignant poetry, remarkable literature, and stunning pieces of artwork, Romanticism or a ‘Love Theme’ can be seen in every branch of creative specialties.

These paintings show beautiful depictions of love, reminding us that the secret to a great love is really hidden in the little details.

A man is always devoted to something more tangible than a woman - the idea of her
— Bauvard, The Prince Of Plungers
Young Greeks Attending a Cock Fight by Jean-Leon Gerome (1846)

Young Greeks Attending a Cock Fight by Jean-Leon Gerome (1846)

Blanchard Narcisse by Edouard Theophile (1844-1879)

Blanchard Narcisse by Edouard Theophile (1844-1879)

The First Kiss by Salvador Viniegra Ilk Opucuk (1891)

The First Kiss by Salvador Viniegra Ilk Opucuk (1891)

Kiss me, and you will see how important I am
— Sylvia Plath
Cupid and Psyche by Louis Jean Francois Lagrenee (1767)

Cupid and Psyche by Louis Jean Francois Lagrenee (1767)

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I wondered what that was like, to hold someone’s hand. I bet you could sometimes find all of the mysteries of the universe in someone’s hand
— Benjamin Alire Sáenz
The Secret Rendezvous by Pierre-Charles Comte

The Secret Rendezvous by Pierre-Charles Comte

But I love your feet
only because they walked
upon the earth and upon
the wind and upon the waters,
until they found me
— Pablo Neruda
The Kiss by Francesco Hayez (1859)

The Kiss by Francesco Hayez (1859)

Beware a kiss, he told her. Kisses are powerful things. You expose part of your soul
— Ruth Frances Long
Kissing by Hubert Denis (1903)

Kissing by Hubert Denis (1903)

Kreutzer Sonata by Rene Francois Xavier Prinet (1901)

Kreutzer Sonata by Rene Francois Xavier Prinet (1901)

What happens when people open their hearts? ... They get better.
— Haruki Murakami
The Painter’s Honeymoon by Frederic Leighton (1864)

The Painter’s Honeymoon by Frederic Leighton (1864)

The Poet and His Muse by Alexandre Cabanel (1840)

The Poet and His Muse by Alexandre Cabanel (1840)

This is what we call love. When you are loved, you can do anything in creation. When you are loved, there’s no need at all to understand what’s happening, because everything happens within you
— Paulo Coelho
Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome (1890)

Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-Leon Gerome (1890)

A Romance by Santiago Rusinol (1894)

A Romance by Santiago Rusinol (1894)

The music in his laughter had a way of rounding off the missing notes in her soul

— Gloria Naylor
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She would make a man of me. She puts strength and courage into me as no one else can. She is unlike any girl I ever saw; there’s no sentimentality about her; she is wise, and kind, and sweet. She says what she means, looks you straight in the eye, and is as true as steel
— Louisa May Alcott
Siren by Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1893)

Siren by Giulio Aristide Sartorio (1893)

I was as unburdened as a piece of dandelion fluff, and he was the wind that stirred me about the world
— Sarah J. Maas
Springtime by Pierre Auguste Cot (1873)

Springtime by Pierre Auguste Cot (1873)

The power of a glance has been so much abused in love stories, that it has come to be disbelieved in. Few people dare now to say that two beings have fallen in love because they have looked at each other. Yet it is in this way that love begins, and in this way only
— Victor Hugo
The Storm by Pierre Auguste Cot (1880)

The Storm by Pierre Auguste Cot (1880)

All love is expansion, all selfishness is contraction. Love is therefore the only law of life. He who loves lives, he who is selfish is dying. Therefore love for love’s sake, because it is the only law of life, just as you breathe to live
— Swami Vivekananda