This week, ABC’s long-running reality dating show The Bachelor paid a visit to Immersive Van Gogh, a popular digital art experience featuring animated projections of the Dutch artist’s work.
Clayton Echard and Sarah Hamrick had a private meal at the Immersive Van Gogh exhibition in Los Angeles for their one-on-one date.
The couple bonded in front of a Starry Night display before he offered her a rose. The artist’s struggles with mental illness and subsequent suicide were presumably not discussed.
The two were then serenaded by a string quartet performing Claude Debussy’s Clair de Lune, a welcome change from the show’s usual lineup of interchangeably bland country singers.
“Standing here in Clayton’s arms with the music playing, this is the most romantic moment of my life,” Hamrick told the cameras. “I believe this is the start of my relationship with Clayton.”
The Bachelor and The Bachelorette have featured a variety of art-themed dates over the years, some more romantic than others.
Jimmy Kimmel, a late-night talk show host, directed season 19 candidates in a farm-themed relay race in 2015, with the winner posing with Bachelor Chris Soules for a shot reminiscent of Grant Wood’s American Gothic. (Obviously, the show’s star was an Iowa farmer.)
More recently, with the pandemic limiting opportunities for more daring activities, Tayshia Adams and Katie Thurston of The Bachelorette hosted group dates at an art class in seasons 16 and 17.
Thurston’s eventual runner-up, Justin Glaze, was an actual artist, but her final winner, Blake Moyes, made the biggest impression on the art date.
Possibly influenced by the vaginal floral imagery deployed by class teacher Jacqueline Secor, Moynes created a picture titled Life that was deemed so offensive that it was completely censored.
He had already competed for Adams’s affections, and on the art date, he sculpted a penis that was concealed by a black box. After a hot body painting date, Adams delivered her last rose to Zac Clark.
Both Thurston and Adams have since left their respective teams.