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The KissThe Kiss © The Gallery Collection/Corbis

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt. 1907–1908 C.E. Oil and gold leaf on canvas.

Curator Note

"The climax of Klimt's "Golden Phase." A couple embraces in a field of flowers, their bodies dissolving into elaborate, decorative geometric patterns. Klimt blends Art Nouveau eroticism with the spiritual aura of a Byzantine icon, creating a transcendent image of love where the figures merge into a single golden form."

Form

  • Use of gold leaf (Byzantine influence).
  • Decorative patterning: Rectangles (male) vs. Circles (female).
  • Flattened space; figures float on a golden abyss.
  • Realistic faces/hands contrast with abstract bodies.
  • Square canvas format.

Function

  • To celebrate erotic love as a spiritual experience.
  • To decorate a modern interior.
  • To fuse fine art and applied art (Vienna Secession).
  • To create a timeless, universal symbol of union.
  • To shock the conservative Vienna public.

Content

  • The man: dominates, wearing rectangular, phallic patterns.
  • The woman: yields, wearing circular, floral patterns.
  • The meadow: infinite, terminating at a cliff edge.
  • The golden halo: sanctifies the couple.
  • Union of opposites.

Context

  • Vienna Secession: artists breaking from the Academy.
  • Klimt was influenced by Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna.
  • Freud was working in Vienna (interest in sexuality).
  • Reaction against industrial mass production.
  • The "Fin de siècle" decadent style.