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12 of Art’s Most Memorable Kisses

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Since the ancients, love has inspired artists to tell stories of infatuation, heartbreak and longing, and the theme of kisses has proven to be particularly resonant. From the eroticism of Picasso's self portrait with his wife to the exuberance of Dan Colen’s “painting” of lipstick traces, the passion of an artistic kiss transcends time and genre. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, we searched our archives for works that valiantly kiss and tell. –Stephanie Sporn

12 of Art’s Most Memorable Kisses

  • Auguste Rodin, Le Baiser, 2ème réduction dit aussi no. 4.
    Conceived by Rodin in 1886, Le Baiser is one of the most recognisable sculptures in the history of art. It portrays Paolo and Francesca, the ill-fated lovers from Dante’s Divine Comedy who were murdered by Francesca's husband and Paolo's brother, Gianciotto Malatesta, lord of Rimini, after he caught them sharing their first kiss. Banished to the second circle of hell for their adulterous passion, the two lovers were doomed to spend eternity in an embrace. Ingres, Delacroix and Alexandre Cabanel are among the many artists who also interpreted the literary episode.

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  • Alfred Eisenstaedt, VJ Day, Times Square, New York City, August 14th, 1945.
    Although it is considered one of the most romantic photographs of all time, this image  signifies a major historical moment. On 14 August 1945, an American sailor named George Mendonsa was seeing a movie at Radio City Music Hall with his date, Rita Petry. Upon hearing that Japan surrendered in World War II, the couple drank in celebration. Later – a few drinks in – Mendonsa spotted a woman in a nurse's uniform. He instinctively grabbed her, and their embrace was captured by Life magazine photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt. Despite Mendonsa's impromptu kiss with another woman, Rita went on to marry him and the two have been together for 70 years.

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  • Constantin Brancusi, The Kiss.
    Brancusi’s  The Kiss was as crucial in the development of the sculptor's work as Les demoiselles d’Avignon was for Picasso. In 1907, Brancusi worked briefly in Rodin's studio, where he saw he saw a version of the older artist’s Le Baiser, rendered naturalistically in marble. Brancusi rapidly abandoned the traditional academic style embodied by Rodin for more abstract forms. He carved the first version of The Kiss in 1907–08, and would return to the subject for five decades. The exquisitely carved limestone version shown here is less than one foot high, but it sold at Sotheby’s Impressionist and Modern Art Evening auction for a mighty price – a testament to its rarity and significance.

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  • Pablo Picasso, Couple, Le Baiser.
    Picasso’s  depiction of two lovers embracing conveys the sense of immediacy and urgency typical of his paintings from the late 1960s and early 1970s. The profile positioning of the lovers, most likely Picasso and his wife Jacqueline Roque, calls Brancusi’s sculptural series to mind, but here, in a natural setting, innocence is replaced by an almost violent, primitive rawness. After all, the artist was no stranger to sex and passion. As curator Marie-Laure Bernadac wrote of this work: “Picasso makes two beings into one, expressing the physical blending that takes place at the moment of the kiss. Never has erotic force been suggested with such realism” (M.-L. Bernadac, Picasso 1953–1972: Painting as Model, in Late Picasso (exhibition catalogue), Tate Gallery, London, 1988).

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  • Dan Colen, Untitled (A Million Kisses in Your Lifetime).
    To create this painting , one woman wore different shades of Chanel lipstick and planted kisses in precise spots with varying pressure to create an undulating composition. Much like the Flower paintings, Colen’s Kiss series offers a rare, intimate side of an artist more associated with graffiti and grit. One of Colen’s personal favourites, the work was originally given as a wedding present to his brother, whose marriage ultimately failed. Colen was perhaps paying tribute to Oscar Wilde’s grave at Père Lachaise where visitors leave kiss marks on his tomb. Indeed, the story behind this painting recalls a line from Wilde's 1893 dark comedy A Woman of No Importance: “a kiss may ruin a human life.”

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  • Edvard Munch, The Kiss IV (W. 204; S. 102/D).
    Always exploring themes of love, loneliness, death and human emotion, Munch captured a more idyllic sentiment in his Kiss series. “No longer shall I paint interiors with men reading and women knitting,” the artist declared in his St. Cloud Manifesto of 1889. “I will paint living people who breathe and feel and suffer and love.” In The Kiss IV , Munch fuses the faces together to symbolise the couple’s passionate unity.

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  • Andy Warhol, The Kiss (Bela Lugosi).
    One of the first works that Warhol created using the silkscreen technique, this 1964 picture was derived from a still from Tod Browning’s 1931 silent film of Bram Stoker's book Dracula starring Bela Lugosi as Dracula and Helen Chandler as Mina. In this heightened moment, Dracula is about to bite Mina’s neck and turn her into a vampire. Much like Edvard Munch’s Kiss series, Warhol’s take on the subject is rich in drama but infused with the romance and beauty of Hollywood’s golden age.

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  • Gustav Klimt, Das Werk von Gustav Klimt. Einleitende Worte: Hermann Bahr, Peter Altenberg. Wien und Leipzig, Hugo Heller Kunstverlag, 1918.
    While Klimt’s The Kiss has remained an Austrian treasure since the Belvedere Museum purchased the painting before the artist even completed it, Sotheby’s did sell an extremely rare catalogue published the year of the artist’s death that included 50 richly printed collotype plates of Klimt’s greatest masterpieces. When creating The Kiss, Klimt experimented with subject and material – he rarely included men in his work, and inspired by Byzantine mosaics, he incorporated gold leaf into his oil paints. Now, The Kiss is undeniably one of Klimt’s most celebrated works.

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  • Elliott Erwitt, 'California Kiss', 1955.
    Praised for his humanistic photographs, Erwitt is a Magnum photographer known to find the extraordinary in the ordinary. In this image , he perfectly captures a couple’s carefree, blissful romance reflected in a car mirror. Beyond the mirror, one sees a dreamy Santa Monica overlook.

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  • Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Study for Butterfly Couple.
    A preeminent American illustrator of posters, books, magazine covers and ads, Leyendecker painted this particular work i n 1923 as a study for a Kuppenheimer clothing advertisement. Drawing elegant women and strong, well-dressed men, Leyendecker popularised aspirational imagery in advertising. One could imagine this couple fêting the night away with Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan.

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  • Lennon, John, Untitled Illustration of a Kissing Couple.
    Sotheby’s 2014 sale John Lennon You Might Well Arsk was the most extensive collection of the beloved singer’s original drawings and manuscripts ever to come to auction. A trained artist, Lennon’s illustrations were both whimsical and humorous. This drawing of a couple kissing was published on page 76 of Lennon’s book In His Own Write.

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  • Tracey Emin, I Kiss You.
    Our roundup would not be complete without this literal interpretation of a kiss by Tracey Emin. Fearlessly honest, the English artist tackles everything from childhood trauma to heartbreak, and her works often depict love with a tinge of angst or sadness. The mood of the  present example , a reference to the neon signs in her hometown of Margate, feels somewhere between voyeuristic and confessional.

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