An Austrian symbolist painter, Gustav Klimt is one of the most famous painters of the Viennese Secession. Until 1890, he enjoyed a solid reputation as a painter and decorator who was entrusted with numerous official commissions for decorations: the walls and ceilings of theatres, public buildings, villas.

With an eye to Art Nouveau and Jugendstil, in 1897 he participated in the founding of the Union of Figurative Artists, also called the “Secession”. Klimt became president of this movement, the goal of which was to break with academicism and elevate Austrian art to international recognition.

But his painting was considered provocative and immoral and attracted violent criticism from the press. At the fourteenth exhibition of the Secession devoted to Beethoven (1902), Klimt displayed a seven-panel fresco representing the Ninth Symphony which was to decorate a monument to the musician by architect Josef Hoffmann. This work, defended by Gustav Mahler, was again the subject of criticism in the name of morality. Klimt was then denigrated for more than a decade.

In 1908, he left the "Secession" which he considered was going nowhere and devoted himself to the painting of landscapes and allegorical scenes; these brightly coloured and highly ornamented works evoke the pointillism of Seurat or the paintings of Van Gogh and Bonnard.

In 1910, Klimt finally found success and fame during his participation in the Venice Biennale.

While Klimt is famous for his large-scale portraits in compositions decorated with gold, for his depictions of female nudes in languid poses and for his asymmetrical compositions without relief or perspective, his work also comprises contrasts between figuration and abstraction, allegories and landscapes, stylisation and naturalism, impressionism and symbolism, which assures him a prominent place in the art of the twentieth century. The Kiss of 1905 is undoubtedly the most representative painting of his genius.