Sealed with a Kiss: 7 Polish Artworks Featuring Kisses

Pocalunek-wsrod-makow.jpg, default, 'A Kiss Among the Poppies' by Wojciech Weiss, 1900, photo: National Museum in Kraków

#photography & visual arts

Blown from across a room, a peck on the cheek, a big old smooch on the mouth! Kisses can be playful and tender, friendly and passionate, delicate and bold. Explore how Polish artists have captured these sweet moments between loved ones and lovers.

Text

Ah! Then I dare to gaze boldly into your eyes,
I steal toward your lips and ask for nothing more –
Only to kiss, to kiss, to kiss!

Author

Adam Mickiewicz

‘Courtship’ by Jacek Malczewski

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

'Courtship' by Jacek Malczewski, photo: Górnośląskie Museum in Bytom

Picture image

Jacek-Malczewski-Zaloty-1878-olej-na-tekturze-MGB_Sz-7806.jpg

Zaloty (Courtship) is a small painting by Jacek Malczewski, only slightly bigger than a piece of A4 paper. That in of itself is unusual for the famous symbolist painter and representative of the Young Poland movement, considering most of his paintings are large, sweeping and full of detail. It is dated 1878, meaning the painter would have been at the beginning of his artistic career and likely still finding his style.

The painting’s size is very fitting – it captures a truly intimate moment, in a somewhat hidden, overgrown, cozy space. In Courtship, it is as if we’re witnessing a stolen spur of the moment kiss during an everyday chore.

‘The Kiss’ by Irena Łuczyńska-Szymanowska

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

'The Kiss' by Irena Łuczyńska-Szymanowska, 1926, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

Picture image

irena_luczynska-szymanowska_pocalunek-copy.jpg

Irena Łuczyńska-Szymanowska was known as an esteemed Warsaw-based portraitist, popular among the crème de la crème of interwar Polish society. The Kiss is a joyful triumph of youth and love, and one of the artist's best-known works in public collections.

The painting depicts a kiss taking place behind a fruit and vegetable market stall. It’s clearly very passionate as a tall man in an unbuttoned shirt embraces a woman wearing a bottle-green dress with a certain power. Their faces, directed at each other, are not visible to us, yet the gesture looks dynamic, which is affirmed by their clenched hands and the woman's bent, strained neck.

‘A Kiss on the Grass’ by Wojciech Weiss

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

'A Kiss on the Grass' by Wojciech Weiss, 1899, photo: National Museum in Poznań

Picture image

wojciech_weiss_pocalunek_na_trawie_1899_mnp.jpg

Wojciech Weiss’s Kiss on the Grass (1899) is considered one of the most important works of the Young Poland movement. Painted during the artist’s stay in Strzyżów, it depicts a couple embracing in a meadow surrounded by nature. Rather than presenting a realistic landscape, Weiss creates a symbolic and emotional scene in which the environment reflects the lovers’ inner feelings. The composition contrasts the cool green foreground with the warm golden wheat field in the background, creating a dreamlike atmosphere.

The painting shows the influence of Symbolism and the ideas of the fin de siècle, particularly the works of Edvard Munch and the writings of Stanisław Przybyszewski. Weiss simplifies forms, uses expressive colours, and blends the figures into the surrounding landscape to emphasise emotion over realism. The lovers’ bodies merge into one another, suggesting a deep spiritual and emotional connection rather than simply a physical embrace. Through its symbolism and emotional intensity, Kiss on the Grass explores the relationship between love, nature, and the human soul, making it one of Weiss’s most significant early paintings.

‘The Kiss of a Mongolian Prince in an Ice Desert’ by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

‘The Kiss of a Mongolian Prince in an Ice Desert’ by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) , 1915-1918, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

Picture image

Pocalunek-mongolskiego-ksiecia-w-lodowej-pustyni.jpg

The work of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy) is well-known. His unique style is easily recognised – but this painting is wildly different. Two sweeping figures, drawn together, just about to kiss, surrounded by men and beasts in an uncompromising environment.

The Kiss of a Mongolian Prince in an Icy Desert is a long, horizontal gouache painting marked with two dates, suggesting that the artist revised the work before exhibiting it. The fantastical composition belongs to a group of Witkacy’s early paintings known as the ‘monsters’ because of their strange, imaginary figures.

The painting reflects Witkacy’s fascination with fantasy and symbolism. Its title refers to the phrase ‘icy desert’, borrowed from the writings of Tadeusz Miciński, one of the author’s greatest literary influences. Although the work also recalls the fairy-tale and imaginative qualities of Russian art, it cannot be linked to any single artistic source.

Like many of Witkacy’s paintings, this one was inspired by literature rather than direct observation. It reinterprets themes from Miciński’s works through surreal imagery and symbolic forms, demonstrating the close relationship between literature and visual art in Witkacy’s creative vision.

‘Kiss Among the Stars’ by Franciszek Siedlecki

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

'A Kiss Among the Stars' by Franciszek Siedlecki, 1912, photo: National Museum of Warsaw

Picture image

Pocalunek-wsrod-gwiazd-1.jpg

Franciszek Siedlecki was a Polish graphic artist, painter, stage designer, art critic and theatre scholar associated with the Symbolist movement. His work drew heavily on Symbolist imagery and aesthetics, gradually evolving toward more simplified and geometric forms. As a printmaker, he worked with metal engraving techniques, colour lithography and monotype.

His Kiss Among the Stars symbolically depicts the union of two celestial bodies as lovers embracing in the cosmos. Divine presence is expressed through the radiant light of star constellations, embodied as luminous, human-like stars. Draped in delicate, jewel-like garments, these figures kiss, embrace and float in an undefined cosmic space, recalling the mystical and dreamlike imagery of Gustave Moreau. The works explore themes of love, spirituality and the transcendence of the material world through celestial symbolism.

‘Small Kiss’ by Lubomir Tomaszewski

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

'Small Kiss' by Lubomir Tomaszewski, 1958, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

Picture image

pocalunek-lubomirski-MNW.jpg

Although not a painting, this piece of art deserves a place on this smoochy list. Over six decades ago, Lubomir Tomaszewski, a talented sculptor and would-be architect started designing small ceramic figurines. And Poland went crazy for them. Their beautiful organic lines, the delicate porcelain, the pops of colour were a must-have in the 1950s and 1960s. Now they are collectors items.

The piece features a woman in a long dress, her hair tied back in a ponytail, with her head tilted slightly upwards. The man, with strongly defined shoulders, stands firmly on both feet and tilts his head towards the girl. We cannot see their eyes, noses or mouths, as they form a single entity as they kiss.

The Kiss and the Small Kiss were actually one of Tomaszewski’s most beloved designs. Through this small porcelain sculpture, he managed to capture that fleeting and unique moment that accompanies falling in love.

'A Couple Kissing on a Bench' by Henryk Gotlib

Picture display

standardowy (864px desktop)

'A Couple Kissing on a Bench' by Henryk Gotlib, c. 1924, photo: National Museum in Warsaw

Picture image

pocalunek-gotlib.jpg

Last, but not least, we end this list with a sweet sketch by Polish painter, draughtsman, printmaker and writer Henryk Gotlib.

This delicate pencil sketch captures a lovely moment on a city bench: two figures locked in an intimate embrace, their bodies merging into a single, flowing silhouette. The seated figure cradles the other in a tender kiss, conveying a sense of emotional closeness and quiet devotion rather than physical detail. The composition is only lightly defined, with soft, exploratory lines and minimal shading that leave much of the surrounding space open and atmospheric. In the background, faint outlines of a building and slender trees suggest an outdoor setting, though these elements remain secondary to the central embrace.

The unfinished quality of the drawing lends it a dreamlike, symbolic character, emphasising the mood of love and spiritual union over naturalistic representation.

_{Written by Nitzan Reisner, July 2026}

Language English