Famous artist couples: where love and creation merge

We often imagine artists as introverts cut off from the world, devoting their lives to creating their work. However, many artists have romantic encounters that propelled their work to another level, allowing them to create some of their finest masterpieces. In celebration of Valentine's Day, Artalistic brings you a brief overview of five famous artist couples. (Illustration: Camille Claudel, L'Age mûr.)

5 Art couples whose work will never be forgotten

Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera

Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera are one of art history’s most famous yet atypical artist couples. Their tumultuous, codependent and abusive relationship was born of their commitment to politics. Both were deeply attached to their country of birth, Mexico. Their relationship was fueled by passion and touched by tragedy. Frida Kahlo contracted polio at a young age and was bedridden after a bus accident. None of these handicaps got in the way of her passion to create art.

When Frida Kahlo met Diego Rivera for the first time in 1927, he was already a well-established painter. The two fell in love at first sight and thus began one of the greatest love stories in art history. Despite Diego's repeated infidelities, their love united them until 1954, the year of Frida's death. Tormented throughout her life by her physical appearance - which she hated – and constant pain from countless surgeries after her accident, she confessed one day: "I still feel like killing myself. Only Diego prevents me from doing it, since I imagine that he would miss me. That’s what he says and I believe him."

Camille Claudel & Auguste Rodin

Sister of the poet and writer Paul Claudel, Camille Claudel met Auguste Rodin at the age of 19 when she was an apprentice sculptor. He took her under his wing as a student and immediately considered her to be talented, unique and ingenious. Claudel helped Rodin make some of his greatest masterpieces - including the Burghers of Calais and The Gates of Hell - even though Rodin took full credit for their creation.

Claudel fell in love with Rodin but their relationship had a tumultuous ending. Rodin refused to marry her and was reluctant to end his long-term relationship with Rose Beuret – the mother of his son and later his wife. Camille Claudel ended her relationship with Rodin after having an abortion but her feelings for him continued to haunt her. Claudel perfectly captured her sentiments in her sculpture L'Âge Mûr (The Mature Age) where she is kneeling in front of Rodin and begging him to come back to her as he abandons her for another woman. After 1905 Claudel was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she accused Rodin of stealing her ideas and trying to kill her. She was admitted to a mental hospital and Rodin never visited her. Their relationship certainly marked their lives and work but the success of their collaborations was not transferred to a beneficial romantic partnership.

Picasso & Dora Maar

Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar are one of the most famous artist couples of the 20^th century. They met in Paris in 1936. Maar was a talented photographer and from the moment she met Picasso she was fascinated by him. The problem for Maar was that Picasso had this effect on many of his muses. He was married seven times and considering his love conquests as interchangeable because he viewed women as just another one of life’s simple pleasures. Maar herself once confessed: "I wasn’t Picasso’s mistress, he was just my master.”

This one-dimensional relationship eclipsed Dora Maar’s work, who also began painting and writing poetry. The ending of her relationship with Picasso was painful and left her weak and heartbroken. She voluntarily isolated herself, haunted by the greatest love story of her life until her death in 1997.

Salvador Dalí & Gala

Salvador Dalí and Helene Diakonova, also known as Gala, spent 50 years of their lives together. This represents only a portion of Gala's love life – her first husband was Paul Eluard and she was also Max Ernst’s lover before she fell madly in love with Dalí.

The two met in Paris in 1929 and it was love at first sight. Gala left her husband and her little girl to live out a passionate life with Dalí who idolized her as his muse. Their passion never died, in spite of Gala’s seductive way of acting towards other men. Dalí and Gala’s love story has rightly been transcribed in the annals of art history as one of the most iconic art couples of all time.

Robert & Sonia Delaunay: the archetypal artist couple

Robert Delaunay and Sonia Terk, whose real name was Sara Illinitcha Stern (Ukrainian by birth) met in 1909 and married in 1910. This widely overlooked artist couple was part of the 20^th century avant-garde movement, experimenting with new aesthetic forms in an abstract manner. They co-founded the Orphism art movement, a form of art using strong colors and geometric shapes derived from cubism. The Delaunay couple then invented a form of abstract art that they named Simultanism, a technique based on the contrast of pure colors. While Robert devoted himself exclusively to painting, Sonia extended her scope to the decorative arts, particularly textiles.

This artist couple lived a magnificent love story until Robert's sudden death in 1941. Sonia continued creating work and had a fabulous career until her death in 1979. Sonia stated: "We loved each other through art like other couples are united in faith, in crime, in alcohol or in political ambition. The passion for painting has been our principal link." For this couple, art was eternal, like their love.