Leader of the Vienna Secession, master of the "Golden Phase"
An Austrian painter and leader of the Vienna Secession. He fused gold leaf, intricate ornamental patterns, and the erotic body into images gorgeous as jewelry. In The Kiss, a pair of embracing lovers are wrapped in a field of golden pattern, at once sacred and sensual — one of the most famous images of love in the world. Moving between the beautiful and the forbidden, he left the most dazzling footnote to fin-de-siècle Vienna.
In The Kiss, Klimt sets the man and woman kneeling at the edge of a flower-strewn cliff, wrapped head to foot in a shimmering golden cloak. He borrowed the gold ground of medieval icons and the splendor of Byzantine mosaic — but to celebrate earthly love and desire. Beneath the gold light is the most fragile and most ardent of embraces, held for an instant.
Below are how modern works borrow or reinterpret this name or story — not the original material. The two differ, so keep them apart.