Standing Embracing Couple, Profile View

The two embracing figures (whose faint pencil outlines are covered with a light, flesh-colored wash) contrast with the bright background that sets them off. This, like the distinct borders between figures and background, suggests a collage. But in fact, as was often the case in Rodin’s work, this work was generated by another, transformed into a new composition. Here, the artist seems to have traced an earlier drawing, probably A Reef at the Bottom of the Sea-Two Embracing Figures, made between 1896 and 1900, exhibited in 1900 at the Pavillon de l’Alma in Paris and now in the Weimar Art Museum. Rodin then used the tracing to transfer the outline of the same couple onto a new sheet of paper. Unlike the Weimar drawing, the figures in this work are not immersed in a watery world, but stand out against a fiery background streaked with vertical lines in pencil.

The abstract background, a sort of blood-red stage curtain, adds a timeless quality to a passionate embrace that seems removed from the tangible world.