How are you?
On every Thursday, I am introducing the stories about various artists and
their paintings with the title “Interesting Art Stories”.
The 34th story for this week is “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt.
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| Gustav Klimt |
“The Kiss” is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt between 1907 and 1908, during his “Golden Period”, and was exhibited in 1908 under the title “Liebespaar (the lovers).”
In this painting, showing
the influence of the Art Nouveau style and the Arts and Crafts movement, Klimt
depicts a couple embracing intimately against a gold, flat background. The two
are at the edge of a flowery meadow ending under the woman's bare feet. The man
is dressed in geometric patterns and swirls with a crown of vines. The woman is
wearing a flower crown and a dress with floral patterns. The man's face is bending
down to kiss the woman's cheek, and his hands hold the woman's face. With her
eyes closed, one arm around the man's neck and the other gently on his hand,
she faces up to receive the man's kiss.
After Klimt visited Ravenna,
Italy in 1903, and saw the Byzantine mosaics in the Church of San Vitale, he
began using gold and silver leaf in his work.
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| Basilica of San Vitale |
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| Emperor Justinian and his retinue, Mosaics of San Vitale |
The model in this painting
was presumed to be Klimt and his companion Emilie Flöge, but there is no
evidence or record to prove this. It was also argued that the woman in the
painting is the model known as 'Red Hilda’, who is very similar to the model in
his “Lady with Hat and Feather Boa”, “Goldfish” and “Danaë”.
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| Emilie Flöge, Gustav Klimt (1902) |
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| Lady with Hat and Feather Boa, Gustav Klimt (1909) |
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| Goldfish, Gustav Klimt (1902) |
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| Danaë, Gustav Klimt (1907) |
There are also arguments that in this painting Klimt portrayed the moment when Apollo kisses Daphne in the “Metamorphoses” of Ovid narrative, and that he portrayed the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
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| Apollo chasing Daphne, Cornelis de Vos (1630) |
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| Orpheus and Eurydice, Edward Poynter (1862) |
“The Kiss”
was exhibited in the Kunstschau in Vienna in 1908 and was enthusiastically
received. The Austrian government purchased the painting, which was on public
exhibition but still unfinished.
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| Gustav Klimt and 1908 Kunstschau |
For the first example where
this painting is referenced, in February 2013, Syrian artist Tammam Azzam
superimposed the image of “The Kiss” onto a bombed building in Syria, called
"Freedom Graffiti."
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| Freedom Graffiti, Tammam Azzam |
As a second example, in a
movie “This Means War”, released by 20th Century Fox, starring Reese
Witherspoon, Tom Hardy, and Chris Pine, in 2012, the characters played by Chris
Pine and Reese Witherspoon tour a private Klimt collection, focused on the “The
Kiss.”
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| Movie Poster, This Means War |
The painting is now in the
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in the Belvedere, Vienna, and is considered
one of the masterpieces of Vienna Secession and Klimt's most popular work.
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| Österreichische Galerie Belvedere |
Thank you.
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