Review of Gustav Klimt's painting The Kiss

The kiss

 

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt: The Kiss (in German der Kos) is an oil painting on canvas with gold, silver, and platinum leaves by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt, painted sometime in 1907 and 1908, at the height of what he calls Scholars "Golden Period".

The painting was exhibited in 1908, under the title Lipspar (Lovers) as mentioned in the exhibition catalog. This painting depicts a couple embracing, their bodies entwined in beautiful elaborate robes decorated in a style influenced by contemporary Art Nouveau and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement.

This painting now hangs in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Belvedere, Vienna and is considered a masterpiece of the Vienna Secession (a local variation of Art Nouveau) and Klimt's best known work.

Review of the Kiss:

I can see in the works of Klimt that love and intimacy are common themes; (Stoclet Frieze and Beethoven Frieze) Examples of Klimt's focus on romantic intimacy, both works being the precursor to The Kiss and featuring a recurring motif of the embracing couple.

Paintings such as The Kiss are visual manifestations of the finned spirit as they capture the decadence conveyed by opulent and sensual images.

 The use of gold leaf refers to medieval “golden land” paintings, illuminated manuscripts, earlier mosaics, spiral patterns in clothing reminiscent of Bronze Age art, and decorative chords seen in Western art since before classical times.

 The man's head ends near the top of the canvas, a departure from traditional Western canons that reflect the influence of Japanese prints as well as the composition of simplified painting.

She is also shown in a flat dress with floral patterns and the man's face is not shown to the audience and instead bends his face down to press a kiss on the woman's cheek with his hands embracing the woman's face.

 With her eyes closed, her arm wrapped around the man's neck, the other gently resting on his hand, her face turned to receive the man's kiss. The patterns in the painting refer to the Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the Arts and Crafts movement.

 At the same time, the background evokes the conflict between two and three dimensions inherent in the work of Degas and other modernists.

Gustav Klimt depicts the couple in an intimate embrace on a flat golden background. Perched on the edge of a patch of flowering meadow that ends under the woman's bare feet, the man wears a robe printed with delicate geometric patterns and swirls, and wears a chrome crown while the woman wears a crown of flowers.

I can imagine also that the relation between  Klimt and his companion Emily Flug  effected on his artworks as some critics are believed that Emily have modeled "the Kiss" but there is no evidence or record to prove this.

 Others may suggest that the female was the model known as "Red Hilda". She looks a lot like the model in his movie "His Woman" with Feathered Snake, Goldfish, and Dana.

Behind the paint

Paintings such as The Kiss are visual manifestations of the finned spirit as they capture the decadence conveyed by opulent and sensual images. The use of gold leaf refers to medieval “golden land” paintings, illuminated manuscripts, earlier mosaics, spiral patterns in clothing reminiscent of Bronze Age art, and decorative chords seen in Western art since before classical times.

 The man's head ends near the top of the canvas, a departure from traditional Western canons that reflect the influence of Japanese prints as well as the composition of simplified painting.

Klimt's use of gold was inspired by a trip to Italy in 1903, when he visited Ravenna, he saw Byzantine mosaics in the Basilica of San Vitale. For Klimt, the flatness of the mosaic and its lack of perspective and depth enhanced its golden brilliance and he began to use gold and silver leaf in an unprecedented way in his work.

 It has also been said that Klimt in this picture represents the moment when Apollo kisses Daphne, after the transformations of Ovid's narrative, art historians have also suggested that Klimt depicts the story (Orpheus and Eurydice) More specifically, Klimt appears to show the exact moment when Orpheus turns around to pet Eurydice and loses His love is forever. As shown in this painting, the detained woman is slightly translucent, indicating fading or disappearance as told in the story.

Klimt painted "The Kiss" shortly after his three-part series "The Roof of Vienna" which created a scandal and was criticized as "pornographic" and evidence of "perverted overindulgence".

 Works recast the artist as a terrible boy because of his anti-authoritarian and populist views on art, and he also wrote, "If you can't please everyone with your works and your arts, please a little." The Kiss was exhibited in 1908, in Vienna in the (Kunstschau) building that had been erected in collaboration with Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt, Otto Brucher, Coloman Moser, and others, to coincide with the celebrations in Vienna of the 60th anniversary of the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph I from 1 June to 16 November 1908.

However, the painting The Kiss was enthusiastically received and purchased, which was not yet completed, by the Austrian government when it was shown in a public exhibition.