Is The Kiss public domain? Artwork and image-file rights

Short answer

Yes—the copyright evidence supports treating Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss as public domain in the United States, United Kingdom and European Union.

That conclusion covers the artwork, not every photograph or download; the reuse record below applies only to the exact Commons file named here.

Artwork copyright verdict

The Kiss: checked, with file-level limits

Last reviewed2 October 2026

A copyright-and-reuse answer for one named painting and one named digital reproduction; the existing dossier remains the meaning and close-looking page.

01

Artwork copyright

Klimt’s composition is the work whose copyright term and publication history are checked here.

02

Physical object

Belvedere owns the 180 × 180 cm canvas, inventory 912. Ownership and access to that canvas do not create copyright in every reproduction.

Open object record ↗

03

Exact image file

The recorded Commons/Google Cultural Institute reproduction is assessed independently. Belvedere press images are not substituted because their download terms limit them to exhibition reporting.

Work-level matrix

Jurisdiction checks

Not a worldwide claim

United Statessupported public-domain record

Belvedere records the work’s 1908 exhibition and acquisition, and a 1908 Kunstschau catalogue is separately recorded. The exact Commons record identifies the work as published before 1931 and public domain in the US. This work-specific record is stronger than inferring status from the painting date alone.

United Kingdompublic-domain term

The standard literary, dramatic, musical and artistic-work term in CDPA 1988 §12 is life plus 70 years. Klimt died in 1918; on that standard calculation this work was public domain from 1 January 1989. Moral rights and non-copyright restrictions are separate.

European Unionpublic-domain term

Directive 2006/116/EC applies a standard life-plus-70 term, calculated from 1 January after the relevant event. Klimt died in 1918; on that standard calculation this work was public domain from 1 January 1989. National moral-rights rules remain separate.

Source file record

One exact file, not blanket permission

Open source record ↗

Upstream

Wikimedia Commons file sourced from Google Cultural Institute; Belvedere object inventory 912

Original SHA-1

a944e309232d18fa1515dea297d994756b899d65

Fetched asset SHA-256

19170a76808466244878e757e6eccc6bae10fbd96cd539ac3f83028ac74cc61d

GeMarkt derivative

/blog/art-history/artwork-rights-the-kiss.webp

Derivative SHA-256

24dc55b57acf77340a51675a291417d794b68bf2bf310ced7307b5c8df7d8aaa

Dimensions / bytes

1800 × 1807 pixels · 1,090,586 bytes

Rights statement

Public Domain Mark; faithful two-dimensional reproduction

Transformation

Commons 1,920-pixel preview resized to 1,800 pixels wide and converted to WebP; no crop or colour edit.

Use guidance: Use the linked Commons record for this file and re-check it before reuse. Do not transfer this verdict to Belvedere press downloads, detail photographs or later edits.

Practical use

• Copy, adapt and use this recorded file, including commercially, where the stated public-domain assessment applies.
• Keep the artist, title, holding institution and exact source page with your internal provenance record even where attribution is not a licence condition.
• Run a new file check if you change the download, crop from a different source or use a museum press asset.

Evidence opened in this review

1. US Copyright Office: 17 U.S.C. §303 (law)
2. US Copyright Office: publication regulation (law)
3. UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 §12 (law)
4. UK IPO notice on digital images and contract terms (terms)
5. EU Directive 2006/116/EC (law)
6. EU DSM Directive Article 14 (law)
7. Belvedere object record, inventory 912 (object)
8. Kunstschau Wien 1908 catalogue record (publication)
9. Exact Commons file record (file)
10. Belvedere press-image restrictions (terms)

General information, not legal advice. Re-check the exact source record, local law and any contract that applies where you use the file.

Which work this answer covers

This page checks Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss—the 180-centimetre-square painting owned by the Belvedere, inventory 912. The institution dates it to about 1907–1909 and records its acquisition at the 1908 Kunstschau, before Klimt completed his revisions in 1909. That identity matters: a crop, a modern photograph of the gallery, a poster design and the canvas itself are not the same rights object.

The title also matters. The Belvedere records the work as The Kiss (Lovers). This guide does not transfer its answer to every work, study or commercial design that happens to be called The Kiss.

Why this page is separate from the dossier

GeMarkt’s The Kiss work dossier explores the painting’s meaning, history and visual details in the context of Vienna around 1908.

This guide answers the practical reuse question: which copyright evidence supports the painting’s status, and which digital reproduction does that record cover? For interpretation and close looking, continue to the dossier.

Why the US record is work-specific

Klimt’s 1918 death establishes the ordinary life-plus-70 calculation in the UK and EU. It does not, by itself, prove the status of every Klimt work in the United States. 17 U.S.C. §303 preserves special minimum terms for some works created before 1978 and not previously published or copyrighted, so “painted in 1908” is not a substitute for publication evidence.

Here the evidence is tied to this painting. Belvedere documents the 1908 exhibition and acquisition; the Kunstschau Wien 1908 catalogue is separately recorded; and the exact Commons file identifies the work as published before 1931 and public domain in the US. Public display and publication are not treated as synonyms: each fact keeps its own role in the record.

Exact file and its limits

The file shown here is a 1,920-pixel Commons preview of the Google Cultural Institute reproduction. GeMarkt resized it to 1,800 pixels wide and converted it to WebP without cropping or changing colour. The panel above records both the upstream revision SHA-1 and the local derivative SHA-256.

The Belvedere press image is not the source. Its terms limit those assets to reporting on the relevant exhibitions. A public-domain painting does not turn a reporting-only press download into a general commercial asset.

A close-looking note

Rights research should not flatten the painting into a licence record. The composition concentrates almost all anatomical information in a few islands of skin—faces, hands and feet—while rectangles, circles and flowers press the clothed bodies toward one bright surface. The flowered ledge underneath them is narrow and abruptly cut off, making the embrace feel sheltered and precarious at once.

For the fuller visual argument, object chronology and limits on biographical readings, continue to the meaning and history dossier. For catalogue browsing or a personal wallpaper, use the separate paths in the panel rather than treating this research image as a product licence.