The Painted Kiss [Paperback]

I know next to nothing about art, so I found this book's story of Viennese art history in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century most informative. The author works many of Gustav Klimt's portraits, and the women who posed for them, into the novel, and I would encourage the reader to seek out the images of these portraits online or in art gallery books - Klimt's actual historical portraits make for the most vivid of visual aids when it comes to immersing yourself in this story. Hickey has done an impressive job researching the principals as well as Viennese society and its surprisingly complex culture of artists. Along with Klimt, you also meet two of his protégés in the art nouveau Viennese movement, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka. The proclivity of these artists to paint nude women made them controversial artists, and Klimt further established his reputation by pioneering the Secession Movement in Vienna.

Emilie Floge first met the older Klimt as a 12-year-old, and she was less than excited when her father arranged for her to take art lessons from the poor, unknown artist. She and her sister Helene were exposed to a completely new world in his art studio, and Emilie inevitably fell in love or something much like it with Klimt. He returned her feelings in an unquantifiable manner, but even Emilie realized fairly early on that he was a philanderer who did more than merely paint many of the society ladies who posed for portraits with him. It was a dysfunctional relationship between a man who would never commit or change his ways and a self-conscious young lady who could never pull away from his influence. It's generally understood that Emilie was Klimt's mistress, but their relationship, as represented in The Painted Kiss, is much more complicated than that; sex actually plays a minor (albeit disturbing) part in their relationship as imagined by Elizabeth Hickey. Emilie is a fascinating character in her own right, enjoying great success as a fashion designer in Vienna and maintaining a place in society despite the open secret of her personal relationship with Klimt. Even twenty-seven years after his death, in the midst of the travails of 1945 Austria, Klimt still dominates the life of Emilie.

The artist does the reader a service by mentioning several of the changes she made in the historical facts of her subjects' lives. It can't be easy creating a story around a relationship when history records very little of the details, and I think Hickey has done a masterful job. While I never came to completely understand the motivations of the two main characters, I was perpetually mesmerized by the story that played out before me. This novel inevitably draws comparisons to Girl With a Pearl Earring; not having read that novel, I can't compare the two. I can, however, declare that The Painted Kiss is an incredibly rich, perfectly enchanting work of modern literature that I found absorbing and truly magnificent.

As there is little known in the historical record about the relationship between Gustav Klimt and Emilie Floge, the author was free to let her imagination wander. Told as a first person narrative by Emilie Floge, the book reveals a relationship that would encompass many years, many events, and many changes. Having first met Gustav Klimt when she was a twelve year old girl, and he was but a penniless, nearly starving, artist, she becomes his pupil. As he instructs this young girl in the fundamentals of drawing, a certain undeniable attraction exists. She is fascinated by him, and he eventually notices the nubile young girl that she is. Under his tutelage, our bourgeois young lady glimpses the world of the demi-monde, a world where artists' models and artists would bypass the mores of accepted society.

Theirs was a relationship that would span his lifetime until his death at the age of fifty-six. Yet, theirs was not to be the passion of great lovers. Their relationship, at least in the imaginings of the author, was more one of intimate friendship. Through the eyes of Emilie Floge, the reader sees the accession of Gustav Klimt into the highest rungs of Viennese society, a sought after, though somewhat controversial, artist and lover. He, in turn, becomes Emilie's patron, assisting her with the establishment of her haute couture salon, where she would dress the wealthy women who sought out Gustav Klimt in hopes of becoming his mistress. That position was one that Emilie herself had considered but eschewed in the final analysis. The author conveys a certain feeling of melancholy between the two protagonists, who are bound together by something stronger than a fleeting passion. In the end, Emilie became something even more important to Gustav Klimt. She became his muse.

This is a fairly well-written, introspective work of historical fiction that occasionally lacks substance. At times, it feels as superficial as the society about which the author writes. The author, however, intersperses commentary on some of Gustav Klimt's paintings. These are paintings that bear some relation to Emilie's narrative, and the use of commentary is an interesting literary contrivance. So, there is much to enjoy in this novel, and I look forward to this promising author's next book. Should anyone wonder what Emilie Floge looked like, one need only look at the beautiful cover art of the book. Gracing the cover is a painting by Gustav Klimt of the lovely Emilie Floge.