Gustav Klimt painted The Kiss during 1907 and 1908. The painting is unique in the sense that he used oil painting as well as gold leaf. His paintings utilizing gold leaf is known as his “golden phase,” which ran from about 1898 to 1911. They include “The Kiss,” as well as the masterpieces “The Stocklet Frieze” and “Portrait of Adele Bloch Bauer I.” Gustav Klimt was born in 1862 and died from pneumonia in 1918. Klimt was part of Vienna’s Secession Movement, which separated from the traditional artistic styles to promote works a little more unorthodox. The movement began in 1897 and continues to this day.