The Kiss
The Kiss is Klimt's most celebrated painting and an iconic symbol of romantic love, depicting two figures entwined in golden robes, their faces barely visible amid an explosion of geometric ornament.
The Kiss (Der Kuss, 1907-1908) is Gustav Klimt's most famous and beloved work. Created during his 'Golden Phase,' the painting depicts two figures -- assumed to be Klimt and his companion Emilie Floge -- locked in an embrace, their bodies dissolving into a mosaic of golden, geometric patterns.
The man's robe is decorated with black and white rectangles and spirals; the woman's is covered in flower-like circles and organic shapes. Both figures kneel on a carpet of flowers at the edge of a cliff, their private world suspended in golden splendor.
Klimt incorporated actual gold leaf -- a technique influenced by his early training in decorative work and his study of Byzantine mosaics -- giving the painting a luminous, otherworldly quality that reproduction struggles to capture. The original is approximately 6 feet square, filling a viewer's entire field of vision.