Klimt Copy Kiss

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Long-time readers of my blog might remember that last year I won a blogging award from Casey Klahn for the entry I made about my trip to Vienna to see live Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”

In Italy this August, I wanted to recreate this artwork in the streets of Portofino, a charming coast town on a northern Italy peninsula. But the police and city hall were having none of it (streetpainting), despite our having found a few small surfaces on which we could have created some art in chalk and pastel without being in the way of pedestrians or cars. Boh!

Anyway, as it happens, there seem to be a lot of requests for copies of famous artworks, Klimt’s “Kiss” being one of the favorites. So, I broke down and painted one in mixed media. My copy of the famous painting is only 22” x 18” -- MUCH smaller than the original.
I hope you like her. She is available for sale . . . only $1600. Oh, and I did not recreate the coloring that I noticed in the original artwork. I decided to keep the whole image pretty much warm and keep the romance going . . .



PS. I have been re-posting lots of images that some of my friends in Florence, Italy, have been taking of the unusual snow layers blanketing the Renaissance City now. They are quite charming! If you would like to see some, please “befriend me” on Facebook. In the meantime, I hope that you have someone to snuggle with in the chilly temperatures of winter. Also, check out the total lunar eclipse on Monday night. Click here for specific details about when and what.

Gustav Klimt Kiss Vienna

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Maybe this was a case of “it tells more about you (the viewer) than about me (the artist).” Maybe it was because I was standing in a very beautiful space (the Belvedere in Vienna) and was feeling a little bit of “information overload.” Or maybe it was that I had just come from the Leopold Museum and was feeling a bit sad to learn that Austrian artist Egon Schiele had died in 1918 in the huge flu epidemic. He was only 28 and his wife, 6-months pregnant, had succumbed to the same flu three days before her husband.

In any event, I did not have the emotional reaction to “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt that I thought I would when I saw the real painting in person. The images that I include here do not match the memory I have of the actual painting.



To me, the face of the woman looked bluer than her arms, the color warming slightly as it moved away from her face. I looked closely at the hands. His were decidedly strong and straight, like architecture: supporting more than caressing her. Hers were not limp and seemed to reciprocate the embrace, although the hand on his neck was questionable. It appeared to be only resting there after some movement, but not that she was consciously touching the skin on his neck.

But still, for me . . . that face . . . Before Vienna, I had only assumed that she was accepting and enjoying the kiss of her lover. But as I stood before the original painting, I had the distinct impression that she had just died. As the life color cascaded down from her face, her lover kissed her for the last time. I could not shake the sadness that I felt and yet, there was such a great beauty in the artwork.

But that is just me . . . see what you think.

Classical Art Klimt Leopold Museum

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

While the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria, brags about holding an extensive collection of Austrian Expressionism artworks by Egon Schiele and Gustav Klimt, among other Austrian artists, I was surprised by the works I saw there.

For the last three years, I have been studying more seriously, or at least with a more rigid schedule or focus, classical art. At my age, I thought I did not want to take time out for this, but ultimately I realized that I was not improving on the former path that I was on and I needed to slow down and learn what I missed years ago.

For this reason, I was thrilled to know that Gustav Klimt, so famous for a looser, more illustrator style, could produce really beautiful, painterly works in a classical style. Check out these two portrait paintings of an old man. They have the same title, which was translated in different ways. “Der Blinde” was called “The Blind Man” for one painting. The other, on the other end of the same wall, was translated to “Portrait of an Old Man.” They both look tight from a respectable distance, but up close, the strokes are minimally wonderful.



This portrait of a little girl is the size of a normal postcard (6 x 4”). Look how tight this is compared to the style that Gustav Klimt became known for, Austrian Expressionism. He definitely could draw! And once he knew he had those skills, then he knew that his hand, eye, and brain were all on the same page and he could begin intelligent exploration.
More tomorrow . . .


And I leave you with an image I took outside of the Parliament building in Vienna. There are more, but I will spare you. And I hope you like the “Eye Tree” I do not know the real name of this tree, but I liked it a lot. It reminded me of childhood scary stories in which the woods were always watching. Trees truly are magical. Note the “art nouveau” type patterning in the leaves between the “V” and the funky face in the lower right -- Nature aids art.

If you like what you read, enjoy the photos, and would like to help support this blog(ger) / artist, click here . . .

Auchentaller Austrian Art Nouveau

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

Through September 21 there is a special exhibit at the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria featuring a large body of work by Austrian artist Josef Maria Auchentaller. The exhibit is titled “Josef Maria Auchentaller – Jugendstil Pur!” (Pure Art Nouveau!) and displays about 300 works of art nouveau drawings, paintings, designs and jewelry, as well as photographs.

Auchentaller was part of the Vienna Secession (an artist revolt against the established art market), along with Gustav Klimt and others. This artist’s work is largely in the hands of his family and this exhibit features a lot of his works not previously shown to the public.

I am including a few images here that you might not find through the Internet. It was interesting to see this artist’s work after having seen Alphonse Mucha in Prague many years ago. Auchentaller’s works of the female figure and the jewelry designs are similar to Mr. Mucha’s, but there is definitely a distinctive voice at work. Still, I enjoyed the exploration of patterns that Art Nouveau brought to us.




This last image is a portrait in another area of the Leopold Museum that I just found irresistible. The translated title is “Man With Fur Cap (My Brother The Animal)” and was painted in 1923 by Albert Birkle. Enjoy . . .

If you like what you read, enjoy the photos, and would like to help support this blog(ger) / artist, click here . . .