"Kiss me, kiss ": Pictures of artists of different times, perpetuating the trepidation and tenderness of kisses

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Close your eyes and feel all the beauty of a kiss and the tenderness of a loved one's lips … What could be more desirable and romantic, sweeter and more wonderful than this moment? Science has long summed up its theories under this phenomenon from a biological, sexual and social point of view. The artists also did not stand aside. Some painters in recent centuries loved to capture and perpetuate kisses on their canvases.

Now no one can really say from what time the kiss entered the life of mankind. But I would like to note that besides people, only chimpanzees and their pygmy relatives, bonobos, are engaged in this. They also say that kisses came to Europe from Ancient Rome, where the husband, coming home, kissed his wife to check if she drank wine. Over time, this tradition grew into something more, and kissing began to evoke an aching feeling of tenderness, lust and romance.

It is worth noting, however, that different peoples and at different times had an ambiguous attitude towards kissing. For many peoples of Africa, America, Asia, for example, kisses do not exist at all to this day, they treat them as something completely indecent. In some countries of the East, kissing is considered a depraved phenomenon. On the Fiji Islands, they do not know what kissing is, and therefore, to express their feelings, lovers puff vigorously, breathing through their noses, and in some tribes, lovers still rub their noses against each other.

And returning to the theme of the kiss in the work of artists, I would like to offer a selection of reproductions of famous and little-known masters from different countries who have worked over the course of three centuries. Each of them put a certain meaning in their work, in their kiss: from romantic, seductive, passionate and to innocent childish.

Jean Honore Fragonard

Jean Honore Fragonard was famous in the 18th century for his exquisite romantic Rococo paintings. One of his most famous paintings is considered "Secret Passion", which also has another name - "The Secret Kiss". Since the end of the 19th century, this exquisite creation has been exhibited in the St. Petersburg Hermitage.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

The famous English poet and artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti immortalized the medieval love story of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo in his work, who froze on his canvas in a tender kiss. It is known that the artist's deceased wife, British poet Elizabeth Sidall, was taken as the prototype for the image of Francesca.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres

The French painter Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres has repeatedly referred to the unfortunate love story of Francesca da Rimini. He drew his inspiration from Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy.

William Bouguereau

The work "Cupid and Psyche in Childhood" by the famous French artist-academician William Bouguereau is filled with a touching atmosphere of childhood friendship. Somehow, by mistake, the painting was called "The First Kiss", so in our time this touching work is widely known under this name.

Frederick Leighton

Baron Frederick Leighton, an English artist who worked in the style of Victorian academicism, knew how to fill his salon painting with touching, romanticism and tender passion.

And here the will of the young man seemed to dissolve in the sweet songs of the siren and her tender kiss. A little more and she will take possession of her prey and destroy the young soul.

Julius Kronberg

The Swedish artist Julius Kronberg surprisingly conveyed in dynamics on his canvas the impulse, passion, tenderness, and despair of a young couple in love.

Edvard Munch

Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch also contributed to romantic art. He portrayed lovers standing in front of the window, hiding them from the outside world with a dark curtain. Man and woman are one. The artist completely erased the existing boundaries between them.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

And again a French painter … Whatever you say, but the French knew a lot about kisses from ancient times.

Gustav Klimt

The mega-popular work of the famous Austrian Gustav Klimt "The Kiss" is made in a unique style with the use of gold leaf. According to some art historians, in this picture Klimt immortalized himself and his beloved Emilia Flöge.

Rene Magritte

René Magritte is a Belgian, one of the most recognizable surrealist painters of the 20th century. The transfer of human faces is unusual for the painter. But the author had his own reason for this.

Daniel Del Orfano and other contemporary artists

Contemporary American artist Daniel Del Orfano, who in his romantic painting uses the always invariable accessory - a red umbrella, which gives the compositions a special charm.

Looking at the works of modern masters of painting, I would like to add amazing poetic lines dedicated to the kisses of Sergei Yesenin, who knew a lot about them.

The contemporary Chicago artist Joseph Lorasso created a whole series of paintings based on the subjects he noticed in life. Here is love, romance, lust, and of course kisses.