Meaning of the Painting The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

The kiss (Der Kuss) is an oil and gold leaf canvas painted in 1908 by the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918), an artist belonging to the current of symbolism, contemporary to the art nouveau. This will be the most famous painting of the painter, made in the so-called "golden age" (1898-1908) of his professional career.

The kiss is framed in the beginning of modern times, where the concept of eroticism it begins to germinate in art and in society. In addition, the techniques used are varied, such as frescoes and mosaics.

Picture The kiss It is 1.8 meters tall by 1.8 meters long and is currently in the Belvedere Gallery in the Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Austria.

Frame analysis The kiss by Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt is said to have painted the kiss inspired by the gold-painted backgrounds of the Byzantine mosaics in the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, and their finishes.

The use of gold leaves to paint the picture recalls the ancient technique of the iconography of the saints, which is used by Klimt deliberately to contrast with the theme of eroticism that was beginning to be discussed somewhat more openly.

Also, the background of the box The kiss gives the feeling of timelessness and creates, in turn, a frame that gives the feeling that the lovers are floating in the golden space.

Lovers in The kiss They only have as a base a kind of meadow full of flowers of Mother Nature, which further nurtures the symbolism of love.

The decoration of the capes is different between men and women. A black and white chess cape for the man, with some spirals that unites the groups and symbolically breaks the hardness of the flat geometry. For women, a layer of mosaics, colored circles and flowers.

In the intertwining of the layers, ‘the kiss’ occurs where the man lets his head go, literally and figuratively, to give he kisses the woman and, although she turns away from her, she lets herself be carried away in the embrace, with her eyes closed and her body without endurance.

Lovers represent the connection of opposite energies. The man shows a black and white, binary contrast, and shows his seductive will by drawing the woman into her arms. The woman balances this energy with her affection, warmth and color from her that feeds off 'mother nature' through the strings of flowers emerging from her feet.

Picture The kiss it represents the 'feeling' of loss of self that lovers feel. The feeling of full, strong, sexual and spiritual love.

Some consider the picture The kiss the most famous in the world and not the painting the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci.

It may interest you: Art nouveau (modernist art)

University professor, singer, Bachelor of Arts (Cultural Promotion mention), Master of Literature Compared by the Central University of Venezuela, and PhD candidate in History at the Autonomous University of Lisbon.