Kiss

Gustav Klimt • Peinture, 1908, 180×180 cm
Commentaires
2
À propos de l'œuvre
Type d'art: Peinture
Sujet et objets: Scène allégorique
Courant artistique: Moderne, Le symbolisme
Technique: Le beurre
Ressources: La toile
Date de création: 1908
Taille: 180×180 cm
Œuvre dans les sélections: 414 selections

Descriptif de la toile «Kiss»

You can hardly find a painting as much cited and imitated on a variety of media, sometimes quite unexpected ones, as The Kiss. Cups, bookmarks, calendars and postcards, even kitchen utensils and bed linens. Anyone who has ever been to Vienna, hardly helped the desire to take a souvenir with the image of one of the most famous loving couples in the world.

Gustav Klimt left Vienna very rarely. You can count his trips to Paris on the fingers of one hand. As for the rest of Europe, he seemed to have little interest in it. The only exception was Italy, or rather Ravenna, from where Klimt in 1903 brought his passionate Byzantine mosaics. The use of gold and a variety of ornamental patterns in the works of old masters were reflected in the most productive and bright "Golden Period" of Klimt’s work, in the mature period that gave the world his most famous paintings, including The Kiss.

Ornaments used by the artist to depict the couple merged in a loving embrace, are not accidental. Throughout almost his whole creative career, Klimt tried to convey his vision of the duality of love. Here Gustav Klimt conveys this sensation, in particular, through the differentiation of male and female. The garment of the man in The Kiss is drawn with clear squares and rectangles, while the dress of his lover is decorated with ornamentation, in which the softer and "female" circles and spirals predominate.

There are two more interesting details in The Kiss. First, as in most of his mature works, the artist does not allow the viewer to see the face of the character (Klimt was often blamed for the fact that he was only interested in women; after all, he completely stopped drawing men). And secondly, note that Klimt did not paint the kiss itself on the canvas, but rather its expectation, anticipation. According to one version, the painting was ordered to him by a certain count. He gave the artist a medallion with an image of his beloved and asked to portray them together. But during the work on the painting, Klimt fell in love with the girl from the medallion, quite suddenly for himself. And so instead of the count, Gustav Klimt pictured himself beside her, hiding his face. Therefore the couple on the canvas is not merged into a kiss, but remains in a passionate love longing, in agonizing expectation of the kiss.

Author: Yevheniia Sidelnikova
Commentaires(2)
Other artworks by this artist
The Arts, Paradise Choir, and The Embrace, detail of Beethoven Frieze
The Arts, Paradise Choir, and The Embrace, detail of Beethoven Frieze
1902
Бетховен Фриз, Враждебные силы (Фрагмент)
Бетховен Фриз, Враждебные силы (Фрагмент)
1902
$52
Digital copy
In the water flow
In the water flow
1898, 52×65 cm
$52
Digital copy
Бетховен Фриз, Искусство (фрагмент)
Бетховен Фриз, Искусство (фрагмент)
1902
Бетховен Фриз, Слабость (Умоляющая девушка). Фрагмент
Бетховен Фриз, Слабость (Умоляющая девушка). Фрагмент
1902
Plot 19
Plot 19
1902, 213.3×341.3 cm
$52
Digital copy
Girl with flowing hair
Girl with flowing hair
1899
Danae
Danae
1907, 83×77 cm
$52
Digital copy
Lying half-naked, with her head on a bent left arm
Lying half-naked, with her head on a bent left arm
1905, 45.9×30.5 cm
$52
Digital copy
Plot 15
Plot 15
1905
Publication à propos de l'œuvre
Œuvres recommandées
Ekaterina Vyacheslavovna Kvitchenko. Napa Valley, California
Napa Valley, California
2023, 90×60 cm
$544
Original
Xenia Keith. Proserpine reflexion
  • Publicité
Proserpine reflexion
2025, 70×50 cm
Sergey Vasilyevich Nechitailo. The old atelier
  • Publicité
The old atelier
150×145 cm
Alexei Vladimirovich Shevchuk. Mesmerizing to look at
  • Publicité
Mesmerizing to look at
70×70 cm
$110
Copy
Larisa Vasilyevna Kopylova. August
  • Publicité
August
2017, 170×90 cm
Olga Shatskaya. Indian ringed parrot
  • Publicité
Indian ringed parrot
2025, 40×40 cm
$187
Original
Elena Mikhailovna Ledovskikh. THE PHANTOM OF THE EMPRESS IN THE OLD CASTLE
  • Publicité
THE PHANTOM OF THE EMPRESS IN THE OLD CASTLE
2020, 50×2×60 cm