10 live painted models that would look great on a date

No, we will not cite the famous Mona Lisa because she really scares you with her look. There are many other portraits and self-portraits in the history of Art to which we would not refuse a small terrace in the sun. Here are ten of them.

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To stay in the “hot girl summer”, we would offer the woman represented on theSelf-portrait with a straw hat by Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun an afternoon in the sun. She is also extremely far-sighted since she has already put on her best straw hat to avoid a sunburn that she gets all too quickly during an endless discussion. Exhibited at the National Gallery in London, this oil painting shows a woman holding paintbrushes in her hand, and wearing a dress with a plunging neckline, a sign of freedom at the time. She looks at us fixedly, a sign of attention and listening, everything we like for a real exchange.

This oil on canvas is none other than a self-portrait of Gustave Courbet. This man with a romantic appearance and almost lascivious gaze invites us to lose ourselves in his eyes for a moment. Smoking his pipe, he refuses nothing and calls for the dangerous pleasures of life. It’s up to you to decide whether the smell of pipe tobacco will disgust you before agreeing to spend time with this charming young man. Faced with this work and the proximity of the framing, we almost feel intimate with this stranger with a bohemian air. Exhibited in Montpellier, at the Fabre museum, this painting invites us to contemplate the smoky face of Gustave Courbet, hiding a thousand and one secrets. Red flag or not?

We have seen hands placed under the chin to indicate the attention we are paying to our interlocutor. And we love it. Here, Auguste Renoir painted the portrait of Jeanne Samary, actress of the Comédie Française. The model’s soft and bright look touches us and gives us all the reasons in the world to want to dive into her world while sipping a delicious drink. She calls out to us and almost reaches out to us so that we can entrust her with our deepest secrets. You could almost hear him say: “I totally agree with you.” The softness supported by the candy pink background of the work accentuates this impression of kindness and affection that the subject gives us. The velvety texture of this oil on canvas invites us to take a seat opposite Jeanne Samary, who is patiently waiting for us to chat at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow.

With her mouth half open and her hands clasped, this young girl is perhaps waiting for a secret or, as one would say, a gossip. She looks at us attentively, as if waiting to respond. “quoi ?” to one “I have to tell you something crazy”. Although her clasped hands are, most of the time, a symbol of prayer, one might believe that she contains her confessions here. She is also impatiently waiting for you at the Fabre museum in Montpellier – perhaps she is listening The Man with the Pipe.

Here, we find a woman of letters, Juliette Récamier. Sitting on a chair and wearing a white draped dress, she is one of the people who always arrives early. Be careful, she will already be seated and almost finished with her drink by the time you arrive at the café. His face seems understanding despite everything, you don’t risk more than one “you’re late, as usual.” Despite her occasionally somewhat psychorigid side, this time, she decided to let herself go, dressed in her pretty white dress. Preserved at the Carnavalet museum in Paris, it reminds us of the smell of summer evenings that we already miss.

Honestly, he’s a bit like Mister Bean in a wig. So, for that alone, we say yes for a meeting on the terrace. Lit by candlelight, he has managed to make his apartment go crazy and prefers to pretend to read a book rather than face the truth. It reminds us of those moments of laughter at school, when it becomes impossible not to laugh and the only solution is to concentrate on your textbook. This is a bit like the effect that Father Jean-Jacques Huber finally, his eyes fixed on his book with a mischievous look. Having coffee with Jean-Jacques is like meeting up with a childhood friend and remembering the good old days. This painting is exhibited in Saint-Quentin, at the Antoine-Lécuyer Museum.

The Bohemian, Frans Hals (verse 1626)

Exhibited at the Louvre Museum in Paris, this work caused a scandal because it was deemed “provocative” because of the smirk and the cleavage, always the cleavage symbol of lust. But today, we could observe it differently. This woman laughs while observing something to the side. We love her, because we feel at ease and laughing. It is with her that we want to laugh out loud without ever getting tired of it. So, maybe her laughing and judgmental look is a sign that she’s a viper’s tongue, but still, that wouldn’t stop us from having a good time.

Hair blowing in the wind, a captivating smile… There were few paintings representing smiling people at the time. Emma makes us want to leave everything behind to drink a chai latte in a cabin. We see her twirling and happy, as if nothing could touch her. Emma is a bit like that person we would all like to be. Put leaves in your hair without being afraid of spiders and smile at life even if it is complicated. You can find it at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.

Saint John the Baptist seems to be the good Samaritan who explains that you have to go upstairs to access the toilets. Or the person who raises their hand to call a waiter, but in this case, it’s less nice. In any case, he takes initiatives and will never respond to you with a simple “As you wish”. We notice a certain self-confidence in JB’s eyes, which has the gift of reassuring us in any circumstance. As in this oil on wood, he is our light in the night. And for the moment, it gracefully illuminates the Louvre in Abu Dhabi.

Rembrandt made a self-portrait where he laughs, and there is reason to be in a good mood. The artist’s smile is contagious, even though we are looking at a painting. He looks at us, amused, enough to suggest that we could have a good time in his company. It is on display at the Getty Center in Los Angeles and continues to surprise museum audiences.