10 Artworks to send your crush

In a time where love letters have gone extinct, maybe I can convince you to send something other than a “You up?” to the one who makes your heart beat faster. 

Whether you are tired of sending cheeky texts or just do not know how to declare your undying love, in this list you should find an artwork for whatever you need to say to your crush. 

“I want to spend time with you”

Companionship is a key aspect to relationships and sometimes long before you understand that you are falling for someone, you understand that you simply enjoy spending time with them. Every activity becomes more fun when they are around you and you cannot wait to meet them again. 

Il Ballo Della Vita (2023) by Delia Hamer captures this pleasant companionship. While the female figure in the painting looks to be pregnant, signalling an already progressed relationship, it is the handholding that takes the center of the image. Handholding is the simplest exchange of affection we encounter and the most abiding. Just as we see children holding each other's hands, we see elderly couples doing it too. It is not exclusive to romantic relationships either, just as the stage of “I want to spend time with you” is not. Both signal “I want to hold on to you because you matter to me”. 

Now imagine spending a warm summer day leisurely swimming in cool water, talking with your favourite person.. Well, I suggest you and yours take a day off this next summer to do exactly that.

“You are my favourite flirt”

Let’s talk about flirting! 

There are a million different ways of flirting, from easy, light teasing, to quick, enticing texts, or intense, unbreaking eye contact. Flirting is a thrilling, true adrenaline rush.

No artwork encapsulates it quite as well as The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1767). It has a scandalous history, being commissioned in a time where society was full of norms of conduct. A woman high up on a swing, looking at her lover who at the same time gets a cheeky look up her skirt? Scandalous! And isn’t that what a flirt feels like? It’s an adventure full of uncertainty. It might lead to all sorts of scenarios: you might fall in love, you might kiss, you might just talk and never see each other again, or you might wake up in their bed with a nasty hangover the next morning! Flirting doesn’t need to evolve or be anything serious, instead it is playful, just like this painting. You know what you need to do, don’t you? Go on.. Send it!

“I think I like you”

You know the feeling when you look at someone and all of the sudden it hits you: You are falling for them and there is nothing you can do about it. 

It is such a delicate feeling, the one of starting to fall in love. It’s uncertain, exciting, crushing, and hopeful, all at the same time. Whether it happened at first sight or sneaked up on you, falling in love can feel confusing with the only certainty being that you want to be close to them. If that’s how you feel, I suggest you send this beautiful photograph titled Yanomami com Beija-Flor- Aldeia Demini RR taken by Rosa Gauditano in 1991. This image of the delicate hummingbird seeming to hug the face of the young man perfectly captures the first fragile stages of falling in love, further emphasized by the Portuguese name for hummingbirds being “beija-flor” translating to “kiss a flower”.  

May you soon kiss your crush, like this hummingbird kissed a human flower. 

“You make me feel like flying”

Sometimes someone just sweeps you off your feet- there is a reason afterall, why it is called falling in love - you lose your footing. There is nothing quite like it, when you lose your balance and let yourself fall for someone head over heels. 

Your steps are lighter, your heart feels fuller, and your head is in the clouds. It is an exhilarating but also terrifying moment in the stages of  falling in love and losing control over your feelings.. 

Marc Chagall perfectly captures these feelings in his painting Birthday from 1915. It depicts him and his wife, Bella Rosenfeld, whom he would marry soon after creating this work. It is commonly seen as a love letter to her, and I think it is the perfect love declaration for you to send to the person who makes you feel like you are on cloud nine.

“I lose myself in you”

It is so easy to lose yourself in the other person when you are in love. Love can be all consuming, dangerously so. How often have I whined about my friends meeting someone and disappearing from the face of the earth and when you finally catch them for a minute all they talk about is their new favourite person. I have rolled my eyes about them many times, just to turn around and do the exact same thing. 

When all you want to do is to spend time with your lover, be near them, and look at them, how can you not lose yourself a little bit in them? After all, you are not just falling in love, you have already fallen for them! 

Edvard Munch immortalized this stage of being in love very well in his painting Kiss from 1897. The kissing couple merging into one another, perfectly captures the all consuming need to be with the person you love. Afterall.. A good kiss makes you forget everything around you.  If you have someone whose kiss makes the world go silent, you can do no wrong sending this to them

“Let’s Netflix and Chill”

Jacob Holdt perfectly captures the moment of falling into bed with someone in Untitled (Jacksonville, Florida) (1978)

Well… Do we really need to explain this one? Send this to someone with whom you would like to tangle up your sheets 😉

“I am yours”

This one might seem similar to “I lose myself in you”, but there is a distinct difference between them. While losing yourself in someone is something that feels outside of your control, “I am yours” is the decision to dedicate yourself to them. 

Dedication is about belonging to someone rather than merging with them. It is about choosing commitment and entering a “Zweisamkeit” (a German word which would translate to “twoness” if there was such a word in the English language). 

This work by the Kota Master titled Radha and Krishna Walk in a Flowering Grove (recto); Krishna Fluting (verso),  depicts well the devotion of one person to another. The two characters walk through a garden gazing into each other's eyes. While they are surrounded by beautiful nature, the only thing they have eyes for is each other. I hope the person who you send this to deserves your commitment and is as devoted to you as you to them.

“With you life feels easier”

Life is not always easy or nice and without people by our side it can be too much. 

When the ecstasy of falling in love is over, trust and comfort is what you will find in each other. In German there is a saying “Ein Fels in der Brandung”, which directly translates to “a rock in the surge”, meaning you are a safe spot, a pillar of strength. To be someone’s “Feld in der Brandung” is to be the constant through someone’s storm. 

The Green Bar (2018)by Salman Toor encapsulates that in the most fundamental way. The painting shows two male figures holding each other in a tight embrace in what seems to be a bar full of people. Their faces are serene, communicating a sense of peace amidst all the bustle. In a room full of people, who would you turn to? Who is the person you choose to slowdance with even if there is no music? Whose arms make you feel the safest? And the other way around: Who would you hold in your arms? If you have that someone, hold on to them and let them know.

“Never let me go”

This photograph by Alfred Eisenstaedt has had a hold on me since I was 18 years old. While Eisenstaedt is most famously known for V-J Day in Times Square, this series of photographs, titled Farewell to departing troops at New York’s Penn Station, taken in April 1943, captures soldiers saying goodbye to their loved ones. 

All of them are bittersweet, capturing goodbyes, of which we as spectators know some were final. This photograph, showing the sadness of a woman who holds onto her loved one, knowing she will have to let him go, has always pulled some strings in my heart. The silent despair in her eyes because she knows they might never hold one another again, is a frozen moment of vulnerability.

Loving someone comes with the terrifying possibility of losing them in innumerable ways and the truth of life is that most of the time we have to encounter that loss at some point. Ensure that you spend the time you have with your loved one well, and that they know how much they matter to you.

“I love you”

What better way to send an “I love you” to your favourite person than with one of the most famous artworks portraying love? 

Gustav Klimt’s The kiss (1907-1908) is to me the very representation of love. The couple is shown in a tight embrace, visually merging into one another. The serenity in the female character’s face and how the male character presses a kiss on her cheek in a passionate and yet delicate gesture.  From the position of her feet, we can conclude that she is on her knees, showing a devotion to the male character. While some may say that the position they are in shows his domination, if the male character is actually on his feet, he would be much smaller than her, balancing out the power dynamic.  

The flowers in the characters’ hair and on the ground, remind us of blooming love, while the golden outline, often said to be a cloak, surrounding them might remind us of a love bubble. There is a sweet tenderness in this work that encompasses all the previous statements into one.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Artworks 

Paintings 

Marc Chagall. The Birthday. (1915) via https://christopherpjones.medium.com/what-these-powerful-paintings-teach-about-love-aed6eedd41c0

Jean-Honoré Fragonard. The Swing (1767) via https://shop.zenartsupplies.co/blogs/inspiration/22-off-the-best-love-paintings-ever-painted

Edvard Munch. The Kiss (1908) via https://shop.zenartsupplies.co/blogs/inspiration/22-off-the-best-love-paintings-ever-painted

Salman Toor. The Green Bar (2018) via https://www.artchive.com/artwork/the-green-bar-salman-toor-2018/

Delia Hamer. Il Ballo della Vita (2023) via https://www.instagram.com/p/C06I6XXs4SD/?img_index=1

Gustav Klimt (1907) The Kiss via https://www.gustav-klimt.com/The-Kiss.jsp

the Kota Master (ca. 1720 recto; ca. 1750–75 verso) Radha and Krishna Walk in a Flowering Grove (recto); Krishna Fluting (verso) via https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/65594

Photographies 

Alfred Eisenstaedt. Farewell to departing troops at New York’s Penn Station. (1943) From LIFE via https://ar.pinterest.com/pin/537617274277515537/

Jacob Holdt. Untitled (Jacksonville, Florida) (1978) via https://www.artsy.net/artwork/jacob-holdt-untitled-jacksonville-florida

Rosa Gauditano Yanomami com Beija-Flor- Aldeia Demini RR  (1991) via https://www.instagram.com/p/DNF8gaWODRf/

Other sources 

https://www.moma.org/collection/works/79360

https://www.artchive.com/artwork/birthday-1915-by-marc-chagall/