Painter couples who loved art together

Without getting into slights over gender or anything else, we've picked five, out of the many, painter couples who loved art together. Chances are everyone reading this will think of the names Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. That's just one of the many examples we've found. But we couldn't put them all in (that's for another article)!

A selection of painter couples

Behind every couple there's a unique, special story, but that gets even sharper when we're talking about artists. In this case we wanted to gather five couples who have given plenty to talk about, both for their own talent and for the leading role they played in the development of their partners' careers.

Dora Maar and Picasso

They both painted, though his genius stood out ahead of hers. Gossips claim she wasn't only a painter but also a big influence on Picasso's art. The truth is this has happened all through history. Artists influence each other, but ideas alone don't make genius. Perhaps the least deserved part was that she was never recognised as the maker of her own, fundamental artwork.

Today she's barely known beyond having ended up going from one psychiatric hospital to the next and her relationship with Picasso, but back then sparks flew between the two of them. The oddest part? That they met while she was playing a macabre game in which, whenever she lost, she cut her hands. No surprise if you consider she had soaked up Parisian surrealism far more than Picasso had.

Sonia and Robert Delaunay

This is a much more positive and, if you want to call it that, romantic story than the one Maar and Picasso had to live through. Sonia and Robert were two of the greatest exponents of abstract art and, in fact, they created their own movement, simultaneism. Is there anything more incredible for a painter couple than being the makers of their own style? Their story did have a happy ending, because they spent their whole lives together, painting their colourful, abstract paintings.

Salvador Dalí and Gala

Saying that two people were together for 40 years is no small thing, but Dalí and Gala did exactly that. As Dalí said of her: "She brought me the rare book of magic that was to nourish my magic, the historical document that irrefutably proved my thesis when it was in the making, the paranoiac image my subconscious desired, the photograph of an unknown painting destined to reveal a new aesthetic enigma".

No, you certainly can't say she was only his muse. In fact, Gala painted and created too. The two of them spent a whole lifetime creating surrealism in their artworks and in their lives.

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera

And, of course, we couldn't forget what is probably the best known story of two painters. Words are unnecessary when you talk about Frida Kahlo. Really, about Diego Rivera too. All we know is that they had one of the first open relationships on record and that together they dug deep into the meanings of art.