Upper Belvedere

Why visit

Upper Belvedere houses Klimt’s The Kiss and a collection of Austrian art in Prince Eugene’s former summer palace. The collection includes painting and sculpture, while the palace preserves ceremonial rooms built for courtly receptions.

The collection display, Picture this!, follows art from the Middle Ages into the 1970s. Portraits and landscapes sit alongside sculpture, including Messerschmidt’s Character Heads, and a sequence of artists’ self-portraits runs through the galleries.

Looking at The Kiss

The Kiss is a square canvas, 1.8 metres on each side. Klimt used gold, silver and platinum in the figures, with a different brass-based metal leaf in the background.

Notice how the patterned robes distinguish the two bodies, while faces, hands and bare feet remain more plainly recognizable. The flower-covered ground ends abruptly beside the kneeling woman’s feet.

The painting was first exhibited in 1908 as Lovers and bought for the Modern Gallery, the predecessor of today’s Belvedere. Klimt was still working on it at the time of the purchase and completed revisions after that first public showing.

Faces beyond Klimt

Franz Xaver Messerschmidt’s Character Heads depict compressed mouths, tightened muscles and exaggerated expressions. Look at how a change around the mouth alters the cheeks and the rest of the face.

The artist began the series around 1770, when facial expression was attracting wider artistic and scientific interest. The museum’s research places the heads alongside contemporary attempts to understand expression and character.

Self-portraits appear throughout the chronological display. Compare the clothing, gaze and working tools an artist includes with the choices in a later image.

The display extends as far as Maria Lassnig’s Double Self-Portrait with Camera from 1974.

The palace around the paintings

Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt designed the Belvedere complex for Prince Eugene of Savoy as a summer residence. The Upper palace was completed in 1723; its surviving interiors include the Marble Hall, the Grand Staircase and the palace chapel.

In the Marble Hall, look up at Carlo Carlone’s ceiling fresco before looking out across the gardens toward Vienna. The Austrian State Treaty was signed in this room in 1955.

The gardens connect the Upper and Lower palaces along a long central axis. From the central path, look back toward Upper Belvedere for a view of its full façade.

Choosing your visit

If Klimt is the main draw, pair his paintings with Messerschmidt’s sculpture or follow the self-portraits through the collection. For a visit focused on painting, add the landscapes to compare how artists depicted the Austrian countryside and city parks.

Upper Belvedere is the palace for this collection. Lower Belvedere has a separate exhibition programme, while Belvedere 21 is a different venue for contemporary art.

Choose any combination ticket around the exhibitions you actually want to see.

Before you book

The timed slot controls your arrival rather than the length of your visit. Most visitors need one, including those using free youth admission; the museum lists exceptions for some passes and memberships.

Audio guides cost extra. Check the current collection and exhibition pages for any work that is essential to your visit, because individual loans and displays can change.