The Kiss (Lovers) by Gustav Klimt

The Kiss(Lovers) was painted by the Australian painterGustav Klimtbetween 1907 and 1908, in his golden period, when he painted numbers of works in a similar gilded style. Theshades showa couple embracing,and the man holding her face while kissing her cheek. The work is composed of conventional oil paint with applied layers of gold leaf, an aspect that gives it its strikingly modern, yet evocative appearance.The Kissreflects his fascination with eroticism, and while its overall architecture is obviously phallic, it is renowned because of its tender representation of the female model who is tightly embraced within the overall geometry of the picture and whose body is formed from the most detailed, colorful and best expressed abstract passages of Klimt’s career. In its tenderness, the painting deviates from his typical portrayal of woman as distant femme fatales; here the female is the protagonist, rather than merely the object of desire.

The reason I chose this masterpiece is because I feel it shows not eroticism, but love and warmness. It doesn’t make me feel uncomfortable; it feels like the hand placed on her face and her expression is full of love and kindness. To be honest, this is my favorite painting of all time, not because it is of Klimt’s, because of the message it transmits. In addition, it is very creative of his part because instead of a painting it looks like an “arts and crafts” work, so it makes it more decorative and full of stuff.
The golden period is my Klimt’s favorite period because of his creativity and his way of expressing.Klimt usually shows the female body in his works to show eroticism, but in this case, the female body is fully covered and the male appears to be fully covered too, but their faces are not. I think he did this to show the art of love, and to transmit the emotions of their faces.