The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Auguste

Rodin, certificate available

Catalogue no. 2019-5939B (Jerome Le Blay)

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was a dominant figure in the world of sculpture throughout his career, although his influence reaches far beyond his years and continues today. The importance of Rodin's work cannot be overstated. Indeed, with its vitality and animation his pieces are considered to have shaped the future of sculpture and defined the modern age. Rodin's figures were inspired by classical Greek and Renaissance art, albeit he pared back narrative references to classical gods and muses by sculpting naturalistic figures whose forms reflected distinctly modern representations of love, thought and physicality. Rodin was also deeply influenced by the literary works of the Italian poet, writer, and philosopher Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), whose epic poem the Divine Comedy (c. 1320) gave rise to some of Rodin's most famous creations - The Kiss (1882); The Thinker (1904); and The Gates of Hell (c. 1880-1917).

His monumental masterpiece The Gates of Hell, for instance, comprised over two hundred and twenty five figures and groups modelled as players for this arresting construction. The Gates of Hell were initially commissioned for the new decorative arts museum in Paris, but even after the plans were abandoned Rodin continued to develop figures piecemeal over a period of thirty-seven years. The artist would never see the work completed in bronze, with the process finished posthumously, but the figures Rodin formed for his gates were a vital source of inspiration for the rest of his career.

Rodin’s contemporary success did not come without controversy. One figure, in particular, scandalised the art world, with some critics suspicious of Rodin’s methods because his breakout piece was so lifelike. The Age of Bronze (1876) depicted a moment of awakening – to suffering or to joy – and was sculpted over the course of eighteen months. However, Rodin faced accusations of fraud and he was left with little choice but to vigorously deny the charges of casting from a living model, which he was only able to disprove due to the photographic records he kept from his work in the studio. Such questions of authenticity, naturally, are testament to what has been described as Rodin’s sublime talent.

Likewise, The Kiss, which was originally conceived as part of The Gates of Hell but was later completed as an independent piece, faced considerable critical censure. For conservative critics, Rodin’s entwined lovers were viewed as problematic because they were seen to depict uncontrolled carnal desire, illicit in its nature and explicit in sexual infatuation – based as it was on the characters of Paolo and Francesca from the Divine Comedy, who were punished for their transgressions and doomed to wander eternally through the corridors of Hell. The sculpture was censored on several occasions in exhibitions, which included secluding it for viewing in a separate room and, in one instance, excluding it from view altogether. In contrast to his detractors, Rodin understood The Kiss to represent the height of happiness and sensuality, and its status today as a cultural icon is such that it remains one of his most recognised and reproduced sculptures alongside The Thinker. Despite such early critical disapproval, Rodin achieved a level of fame and international popularity that was unprecedented for a sculptor.

The Musée Rodin summarised his achievements and contributions to art and sculpture when they observed that 'his genius was to express inner truths of the human psyche, and his gaze penetrated beneath the external appearance of the world. Exploring this realm beneath the surface, Rodin developed an agile technique for rendering the extreme physical states that correspond to expressions of inner turmoil or overwhelming joy. He sculpted a universe of great passion and tragedy, a world of imagination that exceeded the mundane reality of everyday existence'.

Eternal Spring is one of the most admired and commercially successful works by Auguste Rodin. Like Dalou, Rodin was enthralled by mythology and fantastical, anfractuous narratives. This sculpture is based on the lives of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta whose tragic tale is recounted in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Francesca was forced to marry Gianciottoa Malatesta, the son of Malatesta da Verucchio the then ruler of Rimini; however Paolo and Francesca fell hopelessly in love. When Gianciottoa encounters the lovers sharing a kiss he is so enraged at their betrayal that he brutally murdered them and their souls are banished to the second circle of hell where ‘The carnal sinners are condemn’d’. Francesca explains to Dante in Canto Five that her and Paolo were so deeply in love that they would never be separated, Rodin depicts their eternal kiss in this sculpture.

Earlier versions of this sculpture were presented under two different titles, Zéphyr et la terre (Zephyr and Earth) and Cupidon et Psyché (Cupid and Psyche) when they were exhibited at Paris Salons’ in 1897 and 1898. Wings can be seen on the back of the male figure which reinforces the impression that he is a god or mythical figure.

The female form within this piece is an example of Rodin’s propensity to rework existing figures and insert them into new sculptures. The model Rodin used was Adèle Abbruzzesi, a favourite of his due to her ‘supple, muscular body; he originally created Torso of Adèle for his iconic Gates of Hell. Though Abbruzzesi was the physical model for this piece, his studio assistant and lover Camille Claudel was the main inspiration for his three most intimate sculptures, The Kiss, Eternal Idol and Etenal Spring. Rodin captures his infatuation and lust for Claudel within this erotic embrace.