Valentine’s Day is just around the corner, and the nation’s paintings give us at Art UK a rich seam to mine for present ideas for your partner. Not content with traditional flowers, chocolates and jewellery, we’ve gone the extra mile for gifts to present to your loved one. You can thank us later.

A pair of horses

The Late Abner Pearl on His Small Holding at Barking Tye, Suffolk

‘Look’, this man’s face (and those of the horses, come to think of it) seems to say ‘I got you two well-bred, ready-harnessed horses, perfect to work the fields. What could be more romantic than that?’

Three purebred sheep

Valentine Barford (1786–1864), with His Purebred Sheep

And while we’re on the topic of livestock: this guy’s name is Valentine and his sheep are purebred. What more could you desire?

A song

I’m not entirely sure what a capercaillie is, and to be honest, it’s more entertaining not to look it up. But it’s putting some capercaillie heart and soul into that love song. The person on the left, however, looks distinctly unimpressed.

A self portrait

Why not immortalise yourself in oils for your amour? But only if you’re as dashing as Mr Roland Hipkins here.

If you insist on being traditional...

...then let’s really go for it: don’t just get a supermarket bunch of flowers, get a whole cascade of them and place them on a fountain: and while you’re at it, throw in a peacock.

Candle and a sausage

Why not strip away all of the unnecessary niceties of romance – the cute tea lights, the home-cooked meal – and just get to the bare bones of it: a single candle in a glass and some salami.

A heart

Tancred's Servant Presenting the Heart of Guiscard in a Golden Cup to Guismond

Give your loved one a heart – no, not your heart, metaphorically, an actual heart!

This painting depicts the moment that Ghismonda receives her lover Guiscardo’s heart in a golden cup, from the servant of her father Tancredi – the Prince of Salerno. Thankfully, it’s just a story, one of the 100 tales from Giovanni Boccaccio’s The Decameron.

A yacht

The ultimate display of affection (and, er, wealth): if you need inspiration on style then there are plenty of boats to be looked at on Art UK.

Something abstract

Don’t worry about getting something with real symbolic qualities or any actual thought behind it: just gift something from which your partner is able – nay, obligated – to derive their own meaning.

A guinea pig