Gustav Klimt: THE KISS

Gustav Klimt painted The kiss or Lovers between 1907 and 1908, becoming one of the most famous Austrian paintings, being one of the key works of the Belvedere Museum. The kiss is also one of the most representative of the known as Klimt's Golden Period, at which time the artist developed and mastered the technique of using gold leaf in his oil paintings, also combining it with bronze painting.

In this lesson from unPROFESOR.com we offer you the meaning and comment of The kiss by Gustav Klimt. A work that will help you better understand the artistic style of the fantastic Austrian artist and why The Kiss has become one of the most iconic works of 20th century art.

Index

1. Description of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt
2. Meaning of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt
3. Commentary on Klimt's Kiss and Its Style
4. The historical context of the work

We started this comment from The kiss from Gustav Klimt making a description. The painting represents a couple embracing and wrapped in a large golden cloak. A cloak that protects and envelops them showing the

• The figure of man It is full of strength and masculinity, emphasizing this character by means of the geometric black and white motif that adorns his mantle.
• The woman transmit femininity and motherhood thanks to the amount of flowers and circles that adorn the area of ​​her mantle.

A woman and a man oblivious to time and reality. Critics suggest that it may be a self-portrait of the painter and his partner for many years, Emilie flöge, although it could also be one of the many romantic conquests of the painter.

The kiss hides the man's face and focuses on the woman's face. The closed eyes and facial expression of the woman evoke abandonment, delight and ecstasy. The man embraces her holding the woman in a tender and affectionate way. The lovers appear in an embrace surrounded by flowers and with a golden background that contrasts with the solidity of the embrace and offers the composition a timeless air.

The work is a whole allegory of love, achieving the artist to print a timeless and universal character. Thus, the painter manages to instill a great emotional impact on the viewer by presenting the couple in love embraced as archetype of passion and tenderness. The two figures appear as sacralized by the gold leaf that adorns their clothes, as well as by the flakes of gold, silver and platinum that cover the bottom of the painting.

A love scene full of color and shine that shows a man placing a chaste and sweet kiss on the cheek of a beautiful young woman who, succumbing to love, closes her eyes and receives with pleasure the gesture of love from her lover. And is that the woman It's one of the main themes of Klimt's pictorial work, appearing in this a man, but with his face hidden.

This work shows a combination of artistic styles between the Vienna Art Nouveau (Vienna Jugendstil) and the Arts and Crafts movement, as well as an inspiration in the spiral drawings typical of the Bronze Age.

What's more, The kiss It is one of the first works of the so-called Klimt's golden period. A period characterized by the introduction of gold and silver loaves on his canvases. A phase that begins with the Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer (1907) and in which the influence of the artist's father's goldsmith trade is also appreciated.

Klimt, familiar with this trade, used a layer of gold powder in this work getting a bright background that works as a kind of golden cocoon for lovers. The kiss It is an impressive work both for the use of gold and for the theme and dimensions of the canvas.

The Klimt's artistic career he was in a moment of decline when he painted The kiss. Before beginning the creation of it, Klimt was disheartened by the amount and harshness of the criticism that his paintings on the ceiling of the University of Vienna had received. The nudes and their interpretation of the Philosophy, Medicine and Jurisprudence were considered as pornographic and "perverted”, Something that made a dent in the reputation and self-esteem of the painter.

At that moment of artistic panic in his career, Klimt, after leaving the Vienna secessionist movement of which he had been the founder and first president, wanted to do something that would involve a total break with the ties of the Academy of Fine Arts and the traditionalist norms of him. Already the Vienna secessionists had dared to introduce erotic scenes, but disagreements within the movement itself led to an exhibition of Klimt.

An exposition, The Kunstschau, which supposes the break with the movement and in which the painter presents The kiss. The criticism was again very harsh and financially it was disastrous, but The kiss became a real success From the first moment. The Viennese government bought it even before Klimt finished it.

In 1908 it was shown unfinished at the exhibition and the Belvedere Museum he decided to buy it for 25,000 crowns, an astronomical price for the time, considering that the highest price paid in Austria for a painting was 500 crowns.

If you want to read more articles similar to Gustav Klimt, The Kiss: Meaning and Commentary, we recommend that you enter our category of Story.

• Rodríguez Vera, Ana and Gutiérrez, Carmen (2012) Much more than a kiss. Sensuality in Gustav Klimt's painting, Everest
• VVAA (2019) Gustav Klimt, Taschen