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Lot Essay
The commission for La porte de l'Enfer gave Rodin the opportunity to experiment extensively with figure compositions, singly and in groups, which he could model on a smaller scale than his earlier sculptures, and thereby further refine his means of expression. A common theme among these sculptures is human love, expressed not in the tired, allegorical conventions of the period, but in more novel, passionate and intimately human terms.
Rodin developed the figures in L'éternel Printemps from earlier models. The figure of the woman is derived from Torse d'Adèle, which appears on the left corner of the tympanum of La porte de l'Enfer. The lovers were originally known as Zéphyr et la Terre and were exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1898 as Cupidon et Psyché (there are vestiges of small Cupid's wings on the back of the man).
Rodin developed the figures in L'éternel Printemps from earlier models. The figure of the woman is derived from Torse d'Adèle, which appears on the left corner of the tympanum of La porte de l'Enfer. The lovers were originally known as Zéphyr et la Terre and were exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1898 as Cupidon et Psyché (there are vestiges of small Cupid's wings on the back of the man).