The Kiss by Klimt
Klimt was born in July 14, 1862 in Baumgarten, a suburb of Vienna. He was the second of seven children born to Ernest and Anna Klimt. He was an Austrian Symbolist Painter. His work includes paintings, murals, sketches and other art objects. He died in February 6, 1918.
The Kiss, which was first exhibited in the 1908 Kunstschau and quickly snapped up by the Austrian state, is one of the most famous, most reproduced paintings in the world.
It competes only with Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa and Van Gogh’s Sunflowers.
It is Klimt´s masterpiece of his golden period and is widely held to be the most representative image of the Vienna Seccession style.
Two lovers (Klimt himself and his mistress Emilie) arise in this picture from an Arcadian meadow full of flowers, their clothing incorporeal, resolved in arabesques, decoration in the highest sense of the word. The lovers, transported into their own world of intense pleasure and love, oblivious of everything, are framed in a sacramental aureola. The man´s posture is not easy to read, as it is covered by the folds of his gown, but the kneeling woman wears a tight-fitting dress to reveal her delicate curves.
Klimt´s use of ornament in this intensely decorative work is explicitly related to love. The man’s face is in the shadow as he turns towards his beloved to kiss her cheek. His hands encircle her face, as she lightly touches his fingers. The woman’s body is covered with flower-like circles and spirals. The woman’s beautiful and serene face is all sweetness and passivity. The lover’s embrace reveals true real love.
It is almost like an abstract painting within a figurative one and it’s simply beautiful.