The World in Love With a Golden Romance: Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss Gustav Klimt’s oil and gold leaf painting on canvas, The Kiss of 1908 is his interpretation of the society in which he found himself, views on religion, nature, and sex and love. The perfectly square painting’s foreground is a lush green mound covered in hundreds of small pink, gold, red, and purple flowers. The greenery extends over three-fourths of the painting. The middle ground hosts a couple, male and female, arms locked in a great intimate embrace. The composition is very simple; allowing the viewer’s attention to rest solely upon the couple; with closer observation it’s almost difficult to tell when one-person ends and the other begins. The man, taller than his female
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The painting is not only a representation of society’s beliefs, but his own. The man in this painting symbolizes him and the woman, his lifelong companion Emilie Floge (Hegarty 1). The man’s face is turned away from the viewer, making it hard to identify if there are similarities between Gustav and the depiction, but the fact we do not see his face is the strongest evidence to claim the painting is of him. This highlights the societal belief that it is improper for men to express publically powerful emotions about there feelings. His devotion to her is all he cares about; therefore his face is turned towards hers. It has been heavily dramatized and discussed his tremulous relationships with women and his lifelong relationship with Floge (Hegarty 1). The woman in the painting shares several traits with Emilie including the style of her hair; she is known for her love of fashion and that is show in the attention to detail in the creation of the woman’s dress (Hegarty 1). This singles out the early 20th century belief that women must outwardly care about their looks in order to appear beautiful to the public. Their clothing boosts the gender of the couple; the man’s robe covered in squares mirroring the structure of the man’s body while the circles give representation …show more content…
The perfect metaphor for a kiss, for love, the use of the color gold in this painting helps illustrate both the engulfing pressures of love and how beautiful that love can be. The gold is a power color that showcases their love and in doing that it displays societies belief that being in love should be this powerful and all consuming. It does not show the angry, fighting, and isolation that couples experience. The use of gold in the painting allows the viewer to see the timelessness of the message, that anyone anywhere can experience this feeling. In the painting we can easily see the women is kneeling to the man, yielding to her sexual desires and that the faceless man is lost to love. Her position acknowledges the popular belief that women are obsessed with their partner while the man holds the dominated role in the relationship. The Kiss demonstrates the power of self-loss and reunion only lovers know; the entwinement of their bodies supports the relationship of the pair by highlighting their separate persons. The man’s gown featuring black and white colors helps root his identity in logic, hers emotional, the evidence the flowers on her dress. Again we can see through Klimt’s use of design that culturally people associate women with emotion and men with logic. Her feet are planted on the ground showing her connection to Mother Nature. He pays homage to Mother
The painting is not only a representation of society’s beliefs, but his own. The man in this painting symbolizes him and the woman, his lifelong companion Emilie Floge (Hegarty 1). The man’s face is turned away from the viewer, making it hard to identify if there are similarities between Gustav and the depiction, but the fact we do not see his face is the strongest evidence to claim the painting is of him. This highlights the societal belief that it is improper for men to express publically powerful emotions about there feelings. His devotion to her is all he cares about; therefore his face is turned towards hers. It has been heavily dramatized and discussed his tremulous relationships with women and his lifelong relationship with Floge (Hegarty 1). The woman in the painting shares several traits with Emilie including the style of her hair; she is known for her love of fashion and that is show in the attention to detail in the creation of the woman’s dress (Hegarty 1). This singles out the early 20th century belief that women must outwardly care about their looks in order to appear beautiful to the public. Their clothing boosts the gender of the couple; the man’s robe covered in squares mirroring the structure of the man’s body while the circles give representation …show more content…
The perfect metaphor for a kiss, for love, the use of the color gold in this painting helps illustrate both the engulfing pressures of love and how beautiful that love can be. The gold is a power color that showcases their love and in doing that it displays societies belief that being in love should be this powerful and all consuming. It does not show the angry, fighting, and isolation that couples experience. The use of gold in the painting allows the viewer to see the timelessness of the message, that anyone anywhere can experience this feeling. In the painting we can easily see the women is kneeling to the man, yielding to her sexual desires and that the faceless man is lost to love. Her position acknowledges the popular belief that women are obsessed with their partner while the man holds the dominated role in the relationship. The Kiss demonstrates the power of self-loss and reunion only lovers know; the entwinement of their bodies supports the relationship of the pair by highlighting their separate persons. The man’s gown featuring black and white colors helps root his identity in logic, hers emotional, the evidence the flowers on her dress. Again we can see through Klimt’s use of design that culturally people associate women with emotion and men with logic. Her feet are planted on the ground showing her connection to Mother Nature. He pays homage to Mother