The Kiss
A timeless Valentine’s from Gustav Klimt, a moment made eternal…
The Kiss is Austrian artist Gustav Klimt’s most famous painting — a celebration of love and the joyous loss of self in the moment of passion. It’s remains popular as a print and poster because it captures a universal human emotion, a glorious expression of love between two who have, if only for an instant, become as one. He completed the painting in 1908, but chances are the image has been exchanged thousands of times today as the ideal Valentine's Day Card!
The figures appear to merge, almost losing their individual forms, united by the glowing aura of gold. The man’s encompassing cape is decorated with solid, masculine rectangular blocks. The woman’s dress is patterned with circular, sensual shapes evocative of flowers. The closed circle, the beginning and end, completion. The motif seems to spread onto the lining of the cape, implying the essence of one within the other. Kneeling on the edge of a limitless void, the figures seem to levitate against the top of the square composition — weightless, buoyed up by their soaring ecstasy.
We can also read magical symbolism. The circle is rich with meanings and often represents a perfect balance, the essence within harmonising with that surrounding it. The macrocosm and microcosm. A promise of eternity. A ring exchanged…
