AROUND THE GATES OF HELL
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain
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The Thinker
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The Thinker
1881
bronze
71,5 x 40 x 58 cm
S.788
Photo : A. Rzepka
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Of all the works by Rodin, the most famous one is unquestionably the great Thinker. It was modelled in 1880-1882 for The Gates of Hell, and exhibited in its original size (H. 71.5 cm) in Copenhagen in 1888. It was enlarged in 1902 and exhibited in this form at the Salon of 1904 where it aroused strong reactions from the press. It was on this occasion that Gabriel Mourey, editor of the magazine Les Arts de la vie, launched a subscription for a bronze "offered to the people of Paris" to erase the affront caused by the refusal of the statue of Balzac in 1898.
| The Thinker was the first work by Rodin to be erected in a public place. It was inaugurated in front of the Pantheon on 21 April 1906 during an intense political and social crises which turned this sculpture into a socialist symbol. In 1922, using as a pretext that the statue created an obstacle during ceremonies, it was transported, with its pedestal, to the garden of the Hôtel Biron which had by then become the Rodin Museum. Another example was placed over the tomb of Rodin in Meudon. |
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Victor Pannelier
The Thinker
July 1882
albumen print
24 x 11,5 cm
Ph. 288 |
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The Shades
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Jean-François Limet
The Three Shades on a scaffolding
20 April - 30 June 1902
printing-out paper
15 x 10,8 cm
Ph. 2038 |
In its original size (H. 98 cm), the Shade appeared as a variation of Adam, in a simplifed composition. The head is bent even lower, almost extending the horizontal line of the shoulders, and the muscle structure is different, while the left arm projects forward from the body instead of falling diagonally across the torso. However, it is not known when and how Rodin got the idea of grouping together three identical figures. It may have been either a new application or a consequence of his method of working through contours, a single glance being sufficient to apprehend the figure from the front, three-quarters right and three-quarters left, at the same time. Whatever the reason, it was a very original idea which he continued to apply to many other works, but at this particular stage in his career, it reflected his extraordinary audacity. The emphatic vertical line of the arms leads the eye not to the inscription which gave meaning to the composition, Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate (Abandon all hope, you who enter here), since the hands which held it were cut off, but towards the thinker, the poet Dante, or perhaps even Rodin himself meditating over his work.
The Shades were exhibited for the first time at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1889, probably as separate statues. In 1990, they were included in the Rodin exhibition under the title The Vanquished. The following year, Rodin confided to Henri Lebossé the task of enlarging the figure, as he had already done, or would do, for many components of the Gate. "By this letter", wrote Lebossé on 17 October 1901, "I wish to reassure you of the progress of your statue, in other words, its completion, and I think this time you will be fully satisfied because now that it is mounted, it looks very impressive, and I will even go as far as to say that it may very well be one of your most important pieces of sculpture ... I am sure you will be pleased with the result of this statue." The enlargement was completed at the end of the year, and at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902, Rodin took another step forward by presenting three examples. The three plasters, displayed at a height and in the open air, were simply placed close together on one low pedestal, without forming a real group. Strangely enough, he seems to have changed his mind a couple of years later. Although the figure had retained its fragmentary aspect, in 1904 he asked Josef Maratka, a young Czech sculptor who was then working with him, to remake the missing hand for he was afraid the public would not understand, and he grouped together the three large Shades, like the small ones, on a single low pedestal.
Adam and Eve
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Stephen Haweis & Henry Coles
Adam
1903 - 1904
carbon print
22,2 x 14,5 cm
Ph. 2150
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Stephen Haweis & Henry Coles
Eve
1903 - 1904
carbon print
22,9 x 17 cm
Ph. 2695 |
In October 1881, Rodin obtained a commission from the Directorate of Fine Arts for two big statues of Adam and Eve to complete The Gates of Hell. The importance he intended to give them can be gauged by their price, 5,000 francs each, even though the cost calculated for the entire Gate was not supposed to exceed 8,000 francs. However, as the Gate was not completed during the lifetime of Rodin, it was only later that this arrangement, which had always been Rodin's intention, was finally achieved by the Rodin Museum.
During his first trip to Italy in Spring 1876, he was absolutely fascinated by Michelangelo, both in Rome and in Florence. Adam and Eve are direct reflections of this admiration. Adam stretches his index finger to receive the life that God the Father will give him, as on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. However, the bent knee, the oblique position of the arms across the torso and the tilt of the head over the shoulder is influenced more by the Pietà in the Duomo of Florence, a lesson Rodin had already retained when he sculpted the wounder warrior for The Call to Arms (1879).
The rapidly modelled Adam was the first sculpture made for the Gate to become an independent figure. The plaster was presented at the Salon of 1881 under the title The Creation of Man. Eve, too, was sculpted in 1881. Rodin, "that hunter of truth and watcher of life" studied his model, the brunette Anna Abruzzezzi intently and was therefore puzzled that he needed to modify the pelvis of the figure every day. "Without knowing why, I saw my model changing", he confided to Dujardin-Beaumetz much later. "I modified my contours, naively following the successive transformations of ever-amplifying forms. One day, I learned that she was pregnant; then I understood. The contours of the belly had hardly changed, but you can see the sincerity with which I copied nature in looking at the muscles of the loins and sides. It certainly hadn't occurred to me to take a pregnant woman as a model for Eve; an accident - happy for me - gave her to me and it aided the character of the figure singularly. But soon, becoming more sensitive, my model found the studio too cold; she came less frequently, then not at all. That is why my Eve is unfinished" (H. Dujardin-Beaumetz, Entretiens avec Rodin, 1913). Rodin left aside the life-size version, whose irregular surface clearly indicated that it was unfinished, to execute a Small Eve or Young Eve, with a smoother and more sensual body, of which there are several versions and many examples.
As for the large-scale Eve, the bronze version was only presented to the public at the Salon of the 1899 Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Paris, while a plaster was included in the Rodin exhibition which travelled around Belgium and The Netherlands during the spring and summer of 1899. Many bronze examples were made after that, including one in 1911 for the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris (deposited in 1918 at the Rodin Museum and displayed in room 7). Some of them, known as Eve with the Rock (like the one near the ornamental pool) have a rock at the back as these bronzes are copies of the marble version which needed additional support. Two marble examples are known, the first one was carved by Antoine Bourdelle between 1901 and 1907 (Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glypotek), while the second was made during the last years of Rodin for his future museum (exhibited in the Galerie des Marbres).
"From a distance she seems to be enfolded in her arms, with hands turned to the outside as if to push away everything, even her own changing body" (Rainer Maria Rilke, Auguste Rodin, 1928). Even now, Eve is one of the most appreciated works of Rodin, perhaps because of the complex feelings she arouses. "Ashamed of her fault, shrinking in fear, vaguely anguished not so much by remorse for her sin but by the idea of creating other human beings who will suffer in the future, (... the big) Eve is a bronze of an extraordinary aspect and all of Rodin is in it" (Camille Mauclair, Auguste Rodin, 1918).
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The Kiss
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The Kiss
1888 - 1889
marble
181,5 x 112,3 x 117 cm
S.1002
Photo : E. & P. Hesmerg |
While visiting the second circle in Hell, Virgil and Dante saw, among those who had committed sins of the flesh, Paolo and Francesca, two personages who had really lived in the Middle Ages in Italy. Around 1275, Francesca, the daughter of Guido da Polenta, married Gianciotto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini, who entrusted her in the care of his brother, the handsome young Paolo. Paolo and Francesca fell in love with each other while reading romances of courtly love. As soon as they exchanged their first kiss, Gianciotto caught them by surprise and stabbed them. "Love has led us to a unique death" Dante makes their shades say. This forbidden love and its consequent eternal damnation, was a favourite theme among 19th century artists, from Ingres to Delacroix, and from Ary Scheffer to Cabanel and Henri Martin.
Rodin portrayed the famous lovers at the very instant they became aware of their feelings. He placed them in the centre of the left leaf of The Gates of Hell. This group was still in place at the beginning of 1886 but was removed shortly afterwards, probably because it portrayed a state of pure happiness which did not fit in with the theme of the composition. It was exhibited in Paris, then in Brussels in 1887, when it was given the title of The Kiss by critics who were surprised at the lack of costume or decorative details referring directly to Paolo and Francesca. Rodin had already rejected the easy solution of picturesque, litterary or mythological subjects which, by distracting the viewer, weakened the emotion that should be felt when contemplating a sculpture.
Like many groups originating from the Gate, The Kiss became an independent work. On 31 January 1888, the Directorate of Fine Arts commissioned a version in marble, double the size, for the group was supposed to be shown at the Universal Exhibition which opened on 6 May 1889. Unfortunately, Jean Turcan, the practicien who was responsible for carving the group in marble, stopped working on it at the beginning of 1889. Rodin left it in abeyance ... and the marble version was only shown at the Salon of the Sociéte Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1898, at the same time as the large model of Balzac. Aware of the scandal the latter would arouse, Rodin thought it would be prudent to exhibit a more traditional work as well. As he anticipated, all the praise went to The Kiss while his Balzac was showered with criticism. Yet he himself realized the progress accomplished by both. "The embrace of The Kiss is undoubtedly very attractive", he acknowledged. "But I have found nothing in this group. It is a theme frequently treated in the academic tradition, a subject complete in itself and artifically isolated from the world surrounding it; it is a big ornament sculpted according to the usual formula and which focuses attention on the two personages instead of opening up wide horizons to daydreams" (Paul Gsell, "Propos de Rodin sur l'art et les artistes", La Revue, 1st November 1907).
After being presented again at the Universal Exhibition of 1900, The Kiss entered the Musée du Luxembourg before being deposited at the Rodin Museum, when it was created in 1918. But in 1900, two other marble replicas were ordered from Rodin, one by Carl Jacobsen for the sculpture museum he was setting up in Copenhagen, and the other by an art lover, Edward Perry Warren, for his own collection (now in the Tate Gallery in London). The three marble versions were exhibited together at the Musée d'Orsay in 1995 where it was possible to observe that the main differences lay in the way the blocks were carved and the degree of finish, The Kiss belonging to the Rodin Museum having an unfinished aspect which can be explained by the fact that work on it was suddenly stopped in early 1889.
However much Rodin protested about the traditional character of The Kiss, it still remains one of his most famous works, and in the 20th century it continued to inspire other artists, culminating in Constantin Brancusi. While denying that he was influenced by Rodin (in whose studio he had spent a few months on his arrival in Paris), Brancusi treated this theme many times, from 1907 to 1945, and a fine example of The Kiss can be seen at Pompidou Centre.
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Ugolino
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Ugolino and his children
1901 - 1904
bronze
133,5 x 140 x 194 cm
S.1427
Photo: J. de Calan |
The pendant to The Kiss is Ugolino, the original version of which was placed in the centre of the left leaf of The Gates of Hell, while a big bronze model stands in the middle of an ornamental pool in the Museum garden. After being made a prisoner during the 13th century wars between Italian cities, and convicted of treason, Ugolino della Gherardesca was imprisoned in February 1289 in the Tower of Hunger in Pisa, together with his two sons and two grandsons. The keys to the tower were thrown into the river so that they would starve to death. Ugolino, the last survivor, was condemned to Hell after watching his children die and eating their flesh.
To illustrate this subject, Rodin had a famous predecessor in the person of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux who chose this theme for the last sculpture he sent from Rome. Inspired by the Laocoon in the Vatican Museum, he had represented Ugolino seated, biting his hands, his feet flexed one over the other, while his dying children dragged themselves behind him (1860, bronze, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). Rodin had a cast of the study for the group by Carpeaux in his personal collection. The third maquette for The Gates of Hell shows a seated Ugolino, but Rodin then decided to follow the text by Dante more closely, "Thus, I saw them all (...) falling one by one (...) so much so that not seeing them any more, I threw myself, screaming and crawling, over their lifeless bodies, calling them two days after they died, and calling them again, until hunger extinguished in me what pain had left."
The group was exhibited with The Kiss in Brussels in 1877 but did not receive anything like the success of the latter. Yet this work was dear to the heart of the artist who included parts of it in other groups on several occasions. He was so pleased with the enlarged head of one of the children (which he also used for Paolo in the group for The Gate), that it became the head for Sorrow and was made in bronze and in marble. As for the group itself, Rodin had it enlarged by Henri Lebossé between 1901 and 1904. The big plaster, deposited by the Rodin Museum at the Musée d'Orsay in 1986, shows some distinctive variations from the small model. As the enlargement was carried out in fragments and assembled in the studio of Rodin under his supervision, he was able to make some major changes. The big bronze model, on the other hand, is faithful to the version on The Gate.
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Meditation
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Stephen Haweis & Henry Coles
Meditation
1903 - 1904
carbon print
22,1 x 16,4 cm
Ph. 1684 |
This is the final version of a small damned soul, on the extreme right of the tympanum of The Gates of Hell, stretching her neck in the "admirable movement of a weeping willow". It became a figure in its own right at the end of the 1880s when Rodin used it to illustrate a poem by Baudelaire, "The Beauty", from the copy of Les Fleurs du Mal belonging to Paul Gallimard. A few years later, he returned to the figure which still did not have a title, and interpreted it in different ways, in the Christ and Mary Magdalene, Constellation and, above all, in the Monument to Victor Hugo on which he was working at the time. In 1894 he turned it into an allegory of The Inner Voice. However, to incorporate it in this monument, Rodin had to remove the arms which were unsuitable, and knock off one knee and the outer part of the right leg. The result was a fragmentary figure which was enlarged, exhibited in Paris in 1896, and cast in this form during his lifetime. It was like this that she appeared perfect in the eyes of Rodin, it was in this shape that she responded ideally to his aspirations. "The arms are missing. In this case Rodin felt them to be too easy a solution for his task, as if they did not belong to a body which wanted to wrap itself up, without any outside help. Rodin's statues without arms lack nothing essential to them. In front of them, we feel we are in front of a completed whole which admits no complement" (R.M. Rilke, Auguste Rodin, 1928).
Completely absorbed in herself, with a shape that is as graceful as it is powerful, the armless version of Meditation or The Inner Voice is one of the keys to understanding Rodin. "The study of nature is complete here and I have made every effort to render art as whole as possible. I consider this plaster to be one of my best finished works, the most perfect (sic)". On 2 January 1897, Rodin informed Prince Eugene of Sweden that he wished to donate a model of The Inner Voice to the Swedish National Museum after the exhibition in Stockholm closed in summer 1897. The Museum turned down the plaster but on the request of King Oscar II, it became part of the royal collections until the King died in 1907.
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Adolphe Braun
The Monument to Victor Hugo in the Palais Royal garden
carbon print
21,5 x 27,5 cm
Ph. 1194 |
However, in the case of the Monument to Victor Hugo, the first bronze of which was cast after the plaster kept in Meudon, on the request of the City of Paris and placed at the end of Avenue Victor Hugo in 1964, Rodin felt it was necessary to give the figure arms. During his lifetime, the monument had never progressed beyond its initial simplified form and only the figure of Victor Hugo was carved in marble (Salon of 1901). Rodin had also started to work on the two Muses (the Tragic Muse and Meditation), but he was not really satisfied or, more likely, he thought they were superfluous because he announced in 1906 that he would leave out both of them. "(Hugo) is so complete on his own", Judith Cladel reassured him, "his attitude and his gesture are so eloquent that I feel the Muses have nothing to add. I even think they take something away from him (...) On his own, he is poetry, and poetry cannot be explained" (Rodin. Sa Vie Glorieuse. Sa Vie Inconnue, 1936). It was therefore a marble statue of Hugo on his own which was placed in 1909 on an unusual plinth composed of uneven blocks in the garden of the Palais Royal. It was removed in 1933 and added to the collections of the Rodin Museum.
The Sculptor - Early Works - The Gates of Hell and Related Works -
The Walking Man - The Monuments - The Marble Sculptures
