The Kiss(in German Der Kuss is an oil-on-canvas painting with added, silver and platinum by the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt[3] It was painted at some point in 1907 and 1908, during the height of what scholars call his ;Golden Period;. It was exhibited in 1908 under the title Liebespaar (the lovers)[5] as stated in the catalogue of the exhibition. The painting depicts a couple embracing each other, their bodies entwined in elaborate beautiful robes decorated in a style influenced by the contemporary Art Nouveau style and the organic forms of the earlier Arts and Crafts movement. The painting now hangs in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere museum in the Belvedere, Vienna, and is considered a masterpiece of Vienna Secession (local variation of Art Nouveau) and Klimt's most popular work

The Kiss is Klimt's most popular work and visitors flock annually to see it in Vienna's Austrian Gallery. At a remarkable 72in x 72in (180cm x 180cm), its powerful presence resounds from the wall as the life-size figures, wrapped in gold, embrace.

In 1903, Klimt traveled twice to Ravenna, where he saw the mosaics of San Vitale, whose Byzantine influence was apparent in the paintings of what would become known as his "Golden Period". The use of gold harked back to Klimt's own past, to the metal work of his father and younger brother Ernst, who had both died a decade earlier. Klimt's interest in the Byzantine period also symbolized a move towards greater stability, through static, inorganic forms; suggesting a search for refuge after the artist's exploration of the instinctual powers of archaic Greece. The Kiss representing the apex of his "Golden Period," this concludes similar thematic studies during his career, The Tree of Life. Each work aids final comprehension of the allegory, which represents the mystical union of spiritual and erotic love and the merging of the individual with the eternal cosmos.

Both figures are fully realized and symbolically blended as they face the golden abyss of perfection. The dominant male force is signified by the powerful coat of masculine black and gray blocks, softened by the feminine organic scrolling, reminiscent of "Tree of Life." In comparison, female energy is shown as spinning circles of bright floral motifs and upward-flowing wavy lines. From these vestments of artistic creation golden rain blesses the fertile earth, similar to the descending roses in "The Beethoven Frieze". The triangular fronds also recall water imagery from paintings such as Water Serpents. Here, Klimt's loosening of naturalism, in favor of a personal symbolic language suggesting the workings of unconscious mind, in particular its erotic urge, reached a climax. Through two figures, depicted not naked, but draped in densely patterned cloths, Klimt succeeded in evoking a moment of intense sensual pleasure, within a sharply stylized and flattened composition.

Records reveal that Klimt was a thickset and brooding man, usually photographed wearing his painter's smock, who never married and led an openly bohemian lifestyle. If Klimt preferred to allow his paintings to speak for him, then the message that The Kiss gave was extremely evocative - hinting, through their elaborate surfaces, at the workings of an enigmatic subconscious. It is no coincidence that Klimt's work is often linked to that of his Viennese compatriot, and near-contemporary, Sigmund Freud. When Klimt died in 1918, at the premature age of 55, several unfinished works of a strikingly sexual nature were found in his studio, as if revealing the erotic undercurrent latent beneath much of his earlier work. "The Kiss" is Klimt's artistic response to the Byzantine mosaics at Ravenna, Italy, which so profoundly affected him. When re-assessing The Kiss for Klimt's 150th birthday, journalist Adrian Brijbassi wrote, "The Kiss by Gustav Klimt surpasses expectations," unlike that tiny and underwhelming Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. After throwing shade on the more famous painting, Brijbassi explained, "[The Kiss] does what a great piece of art is supposed to do: Hold your gaze, make you admire its aesthetic qualities while trying to discern what's beyond its superficial aspects."

The Kiss Famous painting