Artist Gustav Klimt

Year 1907-1908
Medium Oil and gold leaf on canvas
Dimensions 180 cm × 180 cm (71 in
× 71 in)
Location Österreichische Galerie
Belvedere, Vienna, Austria
 HISTO
RY
The Kiss (in German Der Kuss) is an oil-on-canvas painting with
added gold leaf, silver and platinum by the
Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt. It was painted at some point in
1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his "Golden Period".
It was exhibited in 1908 under the title Liebespaar (the lovers) as stated in
the catalogue of the exhibition. The painting depicts a couple embracing
each other, their bodies entwined in elaborate beautiful robes decorated in
a style influenced by the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic
forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement. The painting now hangs in
the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere, Vienna,
and is considered a masterpiece of Vienna Secession (local variation of Art
Nouveau) and Klimt's most popular work.

DESC
RIPTI
ON
The Kiss, Klimt’s most famous painting, was realised between 1907-
08, the highpoint of Klimt “Golden Period,” when he painted a number of
works in a similar gilded style.
The inspiration for his “Golden Phase” was presumably provided by a visit
to Ravenna during his travels through Italy in 1903, which introduced him
to the world of Byzantine mosaics. For Klimt the flatness of the mosaics
and their lack of perspective and depth only enhanced their golden
brilliance, and he started to make unprecedented use of gold and silver
leaf in his own work.
 A golden halo surrounds the couple, who seem to have shaken off
an earthly weight and have been transported into an infinite, almost sacred
sphere.

Klimt depicts the couple locked in intimacy, while the rest of the
painting dissolves into shimmering, extravagant flat patterning.
The patterning has clear ties to Art Nouveau and the organic forms of the
Arts and Crafts movement. At the same time, the background evokes the
conflict between two- and three-dimensionality intrinsic to the work of
Degas and other modernists.
Paintings such as The Kiss were visual manifestations of fin-de-
siecle spirit because they capture a decadence conveyed by opulent and
sensuous images. The use of gold leaf recalls medieval “gold-ground”
paintings and illuminated manuscripts, and earlier mosaics, and the spiral
patterns in the clothes recall Bronze Age art and the decorative tendrils
seen in Western art since before classical times.

There have been numerous attempts to identify the woman portrayed

in The Kiss. Those mentioned have included Klimt’s life-long partner Emilie
Flöge, but also Adele Bloch-Bauer. The subject’s well-proportioned facial
features reveal a similarity to many of the women that Klimt portrayed, but
ultimately they cannot be unequivocally attributed to a particular person.

When Klimt presented the painting to the public for the first time in
1908, it was acquired— still unfinished—directly from the exhibition by
the Austrian Gallery. This painting represents the centrepiece of the
world’s largest collection of works by Gustav Klimt, located in the Austrian
Gallery in Vienna’s Upper Belvedere Palace.

ANAL
YSIS
&
INTER
PRET
ATION
 The Kiss by Gustav Klimt is one of his most famous and most
expensive pieces of art to have ever been sold. It's popularity is perhaps
due to the painting's effective transformation of a simple human act of
compassion into a work of art that encompasses much more than just a
simple kiss between a man and a woman. The Kiss painting was created
with conventional oil paint as well as modern gold leaf, giving it an extra
distinct and contemporary quality. Klimt's use of both modern and classic
tools to create the Kiss Painting echoes the equally contrasting theme of
the painting itself.

Klimt The Kiss features two figures (a man and a woman) placed at
the edge of a meadow covered in flowers. The man in the painting is
featured wearing a gold garment with faint spirals and decorated in a
seemingly random pattern with black and white rectangles. He also wears a
crown of leaves. The woman in the painting appears to be juxtaposed with
the man, with round and wavy designs on her dress and flowers in her hair
and around her neck.

The couple is depicted in a passionate embrace that is emphasized in

bright, vibrant golds while the rest of the background blends into a darker,
shimmering tone. Resembling the work of modernists such as Degas, the
painting experiments with both two and three dimensional styles. Experts
such as writer Frank Whitford have pointed out the underlying sexual
nature apparent in Klimt The Kiss by referencing the suggestive shape that
the man and the woman make together. Based on the erotic themes
present in Klimt's previous work, it's not surprising that images evoking
liberation through eroticism would also surface in The Kiss painting.

The gold background that the couple shares in the kiss represents
the timelessness and unity that a kiss can evoke while the background
fades away. The image also represents a sense of ecstasy that is often
provoked by a single kiss between two people. The fact that the man's face
in the image is unseen while the woman has her head turned with a look of
passion indicates that the man is the dominant party in the embrace while
the woman is willfully submitting.

Although most interpreters view the woman's role in The Kiss painting
as willfully submissive, others have argued that she is turning away from
the kiss but is unable to escape from the man's embrace. Klimt The Kiss
may also be depicting the woman as a kind of lascivious seductress that
provoked the man's dominating approach to the act.

Although the couple each depicts very distinct imagery, they often
balance one another in their distinct characteristics. For example, the man's
garment features a very poised pattern of contrasting black and white
rectangles, while the woman's garment features multi-colored oval and
circular shaped patterns. These images are also reminiscent of male and
female figures and characteristics. The woman has golden roots
connecting her to the ground, while the man has rabbits at his feet which
are benefiting from the nourishment provided by mother nature .

The symbolism present in these images indicate that the man and
woman each have distinct characteristics that, though very different from
one another, allow them to feel whole and complete as a couple. The
balanced connection between the two in The Kiss by Gustav Klimt is the
quintessential example of what love is. In a sense, the man and the woman
depicted in The Kiss by Gustav Klimt can be interpreted to have a sort of
yin and yang relationship that appears to contrast from a far, but upon
closer examination actually fits together perfectly.

JAN
MARK
SALON
DUAT