14 Movies to Stream about Art and Love

With Valentine’s Day almost upon us, it feels like the perfect time to curl up with a movie that explores the pleasure and pain of romance.

And luckily for art lovers, a wealth of options that look at romance in the context of art await. These films tell stories of artists, their muses, and their ever-accommodating or fed-up friends and family and show how art can expose truths long and deeply buried.

Read on to see our picks for movies that show viewers the tragic, triumphant, and thrilling ways that art and love can combine—perfect additions to your Valentine’s Day watch list.

The Danish Girl

Rent on Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video

Married artists Gerda (Alicia Vikander) and Einar (Eddie Redmayne) are members of the Copenhagen art scene in the 1920s. On a whim, Einar stands in for a female model for a painting Gerda is starting. That experience sparks him to explore his female identity, who he names Lili. Though the couple’s relationship is tested through Lili’s journey (the real-life Lili is believed to have been one of the first people to undergo gender-affirmation surgery), Gerda and Lili remain each other’s biggest supporters and loves. Vikander won an Academy Award (Best Supporting Actress) for her performance as Gerda.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Stream on HBO Max

In 18th-century France, artist Marianne (Noémie Merlant) has been hired to paint the wedding portrait of Héloïse (Adèle Haenel), who is about to be married off to a nobleman. Héloïse does not want to be married and resists sitting for the picture, but her relationship with Marianne grows as the artist attempts to capture her essence. Their romance must remain a secret, but their love for each other lives on through art.

Séraphine

Rent on Amazon Prime Video; stream on Tubi

Platonic love can be as life changing as romantic love. Such is the case in the true story of Séraphine Louis (Yolande Moreau), a French house cleaner who spends her evenings mixing her own paint and creating canvases inspired by nature. When Wilhelm Uhde (Ulrich Tukur), an art critic and gallery owner, comes to stay at the home where she works, he catches sight of Séraphine’s creations and is amazed by her talent. He takes her under his wing, encouraging her and selling her paintings, even after she is institutionalized in a local psychiatric hospital for her increasingly erratic behavior. Thanks to Wilhelm’s support, Séraphine is still remembered today for her art.

Basquiat

Stream on Tubi or HBO Max

How does a graffitist living in a cardboard box become one of the best-known artists of the 20th century? This film explores the remarkable, yet ultimately heartbreaking, story of Jean-Michel Basquiat (Jeffrey Wright). Along his journey from tagger to art world wunderkind, he begins a turbulent relationship with Gina Cardinale (Claire Forlani), a fellow painter, and has an affair with a woman he meets on the street. Andy Warhol (David Bowie) also influences Basquiat’s life and work, showing how important the mentor bond can be for a struggling artist.

Big Eyes

Stream on Hulu with Cinemax add-on or YouTube with Cinemax add-on; rent on Amazon Prime Video

You won’t be envious of the relationship between Margaret (Amy Adams) and Walter (Christoph Waltz) Keane. While both aspire to be artists, only Margaret has talent—her signature is painting young girls with oversized, mournful eyes—so Walter begins selling Margaret’s work under his own name. When Margaret starts to question their arrangement, Walter makes her existence and that of her daughter a living hell. The final scene, in which a judge requests they both paint on the spot to prove who the real artist is, is particularly satisfying!

Camille Claudel

Stream on France Channel on Amazon Prime Video

French sculptor Camille Claudel (Isabelle Adjani) is known not only for her stunning work but also her love affair with her mentor, Auguste Rodin (Gérard Depardieu). Their passion is intense, and the two inspire each other as artists. But when their relationship goes south—Rodin is not particularly kind—Claudel begins to unravel. The Getty Museum recognized Claudel’s incredible talent with an exhibition dedicated to her work in 2024.

Frida

Rent on Apple TV or Amazon Prime Video

The turbulent marriage between Mexican painters Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera is one of the best-known relationships in the art world. In this biopic, Salma Hayek and Alfred Molina portray the two lovers, who married in 1929, divorced in 1939, remarried in 1940, and remained together until Kahlo’s death in 1954. Their partnership was passionate, yet rocky: both had multiple affairs, including a fling between Rivera and one of Kahlo’s sisters. Is Kahlo and Rivera’s relationship a love story or a tragedy? You decide…

Little Ashes

Stream on YouTube TV

Salvador Dalí’s sexuality is an often-debated topic. Although he married a woman in 1934, some historians suggest he may have been bisexual or asexual. This film imagines what could have happened between Dalí (Robert Pattinson) and fellow artists Federico García Lorca (Javier Beltrán) and Luis Buñuel (Matthew McNulty). The friendship and, as the movie posits, romantic encounter between Dalí and Lorca is particularly charged.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Stream on Tubi

As the name suggests, multiple women find themselves grappling with heartache in this movie. Friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Cristina (Scarlett Johansson) meet painter Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) while on vacation in Spain. Sparks fly between all of them, and Juan Antonio’s ex-wife (Penélope Cruz) complicates things even further.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Rent on AppleTV

Who was the mysterious girl wearing a pearl earring and blue headscarf in Johannes Vermeer’s c. 1665 painting? This film imagines that she was Griet (Scarlett Johansson), a maid in Vermeer’s household, who becomes fascinated by the painter (Colin Firth). Vermeer, too, is taken by Griet, and teaches her about paint, light, and color. The movie explores the delicate relationship between an artist and his muse, imagining how the “girl with a pearl earring” could have inspired such a monumental painting.

Great Expectations

Stream on Amazon Prime

Charles Dickens’s classic novel Great Expectations has been reimagined for film and TV several times, but consider the 1998 movie version for its modern, art-focused take. Finn (Ethan Hawke) is an aspiring painter who falls in love with the rich and aloof Estella (Gwyneth Paltrow). Estella and the mansion in which she was raised serve as inspiration for Finn’s art and represent his love for her.

Bonus for the documentary fiends out there

If you’re more of a documentary fan, check out the many films that take a journalistic approach to exploring the lives and loves of artists. Here are a few to get you started:

• Hopper: An American Love Story shares how Edward Hopper’s marriage to fellow artist Josephine Nivison Hopper shaped his work and career.
• Eames: The Architect and the Painter delves into the husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames, known for their mid-century modern furniture and architecture.
• Cutie and the Boxer explores the chaotic 40-year marriage of Ushio Shinohara, best known in Japan for dipping boxing gloves into paint and then punching paper or canvas, and his wife, Noriko, an artist struggling to emerge from his shadow.