World Museum Guide
#12

Most Searched Artwork #12 Worldwide

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt · 1907–1908 · Belvedere Palace Museum

Quick Answer

The Kiss is an oil and gold leaf painting by Austrian Symbolist artist Gustav Klimt, created between 1907 and 1908 during his "Golden Phase." It depicts a couple locked in an embrace, their robes merging into a single mosaic-like form of gold, flowers, and geometric shapes against a gold background. The painting is displayed at the Upper Belvedere Palace Museum in Vienna, Austria. It is the most famous work of Austrian art and one of the defining images of early 20th-century Symbolism.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt — couple embracing in golden robes on a floral meadow

Public domain — Gustav Klimt, 1907–1908. Belvedere Museum, Vienna / Google Art Project / Wikimedia Commons.

At a Glance

Artist
Gustav Klimt (1862–1918)
Created
1907–1908
Medium
Oil and gold leaf on canvas
Dimensions
180 × 180 cm (70.9 × 70.9 in)
Location
Upper Belvedere, Room IX

Find it at

Belvedere Palace Museum

Vienna, Austria

"The golden embrace that became the defining image of fin-de-siècle Vienna"

History & Story

Klimt painted The Kiss in 1907–1908 at the height of his "Golden Phase," a period in which he incorporated real gold and silver leaf into his canvases, inspired by the Byzantine mosaics he had encountered in Ravenna in 1903. The painting was shown at the 1908 Vienna Kunstschau exhibition and received immediate critical and popular acclaim.

The Austrian government purchased The Kiss directly from the exhibition for 25,000 crowns — the highest price ever paid for a work by a living Austrian artist at the time. It has remained in Vienna's public collection ever since. The identity of the couple has never been definitively established, though many believe the woman is Emilie Flöge, Klimt's lifelong companion.

Why It Matters

The Kiss represents the apex of the Vienna Secession movement and of Klimt's decorative symbolism. The merging of the two figures into a single golden mass, standing at the edge of a flowery meadow that dissolves into abstraction, perfectly captures the Secession's ambition to dissolve the boundary between fine art and decorative art. Klimt's use of real gold leaf connects the work to the Byzantine tradition while creating an intensely modern image of sensual and spiritual union.

Key Facts & Figures

Real gold: Gold and silver leaf are incorporated into the canvas — Klimt was inspired by Byzantine mosaics in Ravenna
Purchase price: Bought by the Austrian government in 1908 for 25,000 crowns — a record for a living Austrian artist
Golden Phase: One of several major works from Klimt's "Golden Phase" (c. 1899–1910), which also includes Judith I and Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Square format: The 180 × 180 cm square canvas is unusual and deliberate — both figures and background unite within an equal, undivided field
Location of Adele Bloch-Bauer I: Klimt's other golden masterpiece (the "Austrian Mona Lisa") is at the Neue Galerie in New York, after a famous restitution case

Common Questions About The Kiss

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