The Couple – Gustav Klimt

Description

The Couple reworks the theme from the last section of the Beethoven Frieze, The Choir of the Angels of Paradise, and predates The Kiss. The three couples are very similar, with the man’s back turned towards the viewer, shielding his lover’s body while exposing her rapt face.

In all three versions the man’s head is bent over so that it is on a level with hers; in The Kiss this is achieved by having the woman kneel, while in the other paintings like The Couple Klimt simply makes the man taller.

All three works place the couple against a broadly gold background, whether flat, patterned or speckled, which has the effect of setting them from ordinary, earthly love.

On the man’s robe is a square with further squares – albeit some distorted – inside it, picked out in black, white, shades of grey and gold, Klimt often seems to have contrasted square or rectangular shapes with circles and spirals to illustrate the difference between masculinity and femininity. The overlapping of the two shapes seems to suggest a sort of physical and spiritual union achieved by the couple, as in The Kiss.