The Painted Kiss: A Novel

As I have read a lot of these types of biographical fiction about artists and thier relationships this one left me feeling that it lacked something. Much prefer Susan Vreeland or Tracy Chevelier style. ( )

Hmmm. Loved the art history aspect and learning all about two specific periods of Austrian History, about which I knew very little. The romance I found frustrating, but then I do often find romance frustrating (both the genre and specific cases of the disease!). No seriously, I just found Emilie oddly cold and somehow not quite grown up or properly developed as a character or something. Either way, I couldn't sort of 'get with her' or empathise with her, even when Klimt was busy just 'being Gustav' and breaking her heart...
Other than that, I do like 'imaginings' and the background to the tale was well communicated despite my lack of connection with the main protagonist. ( )

Like Hickey's The Wayward Muse, this is the story of a famous artist's model/lover, in this case Emily Floge. It begins in 1944, in the Austrian countryside, where Emily, along with her sister and her niece, has fled from the Nazis, taking with her the drawings of Gustave Klimt. Their tale is told in retrospect, moving back in time and regularly springing forward to the now-elderly model's hideaway. The pair met when Emily was only twelve and Klimt more than twice her age, but there was an immediate attraction between them. The Floges hired Klimt first to paint portraits of their three daughters, then to give Emily drawing lessons. By the time she was sixteen, the two were lovers. Theirs was an on-again, off-again affair, Klimt taking many lovers and fathering at least three children in between, but he died with Emily's name on his lips. She was the model for many of his best-known paintings, including "The Kiss."

Emily was a success in her own right, not as an artist but as a fashion designer. Her salon was initially backed by Klimt, who also drew designs for some of her dresses. In the flash-forward (1944) sections of the novel, Hickey imagines Emily pondering the drawings she has hidden away, and these ponderings spur memories of her time with Klimt, who had died in 1918. In one scene, she burns all of Klimt's drawings of Adele Bloch-Bauer, a wealthy, higly strung society women who also modelled for Klimt (and who was one of his many lovers).

I'm not sure exactly why, but I found this book a bit of a struggle to get through; I put it away several times, so I was probably picking away at it for 3-4 months. I think that perhaps I wanted more of Klimt and less of Emily. The Wayward Muse, Hickey's novel about the pre-Raphaelite model Jane Burden, was much more enjoyable. But I did gain a greater appreciation of Klimt's work from the novel.

I found this very interesting interactive site on Klimt's life and works. Don't let the banner announcing erotic art throw you off (although you might want to skip the section on drawings if that sort of thing bothers you). If you believe what's written there, it seems that Hickey took some liberties in making Emilie and Klimt lovers and in claiming that the two of them were the models for "The Kiss"--but I see nothing wrong with that in a work of fiction, especially when the possibilities lie open. ( )

A fascinating read that delves into the time, life, and art of Gustav Klimt from the prepective of his young lover, Emilie Flöge. The novel begins with Emilie as a young girl who meets Klimt during a royal street procession and from there Emilie is lured to Klimt as the readers are in turn lured to their life through Hickey's engrossing portrait of words.

Definitely, highly recommended for those who enjoy historical literature about the art world. A well written novel with such a pace that kept my attention all throughout.