Le baiser

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Le baiser
signed 'Rodin' (on the front); stamped with foundry mark 'F. BARBEDIENNE. Fondeur' (on the left side)
bronze with green and brown patina
Height: 28 in. (71.2 cm.)
Conceived in 1886; this bronze version cast between 1898-1918

Provenance

J.P. Herbert-Stevens, Paris (before 1940).
Wildenstein & Co., Inc., New York (acquired from the above, 1965).
Acquired from the above by late owner, December 1967.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue de Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, p. 58, no. 166 (marble version illustrated).
C. Goldscheider, Rodin, sa vie, son oeuvre, son héritage, Paris, 1962, p. 49 (marble version illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 62 (another cast illustrated, p. 63).
B. Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, p. 157, pls. 78 and 79 (plaster version illustrated).
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 131 (marble version illustrated in color).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Auguste Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 100, pls. 54 and 55 (marble version illustrated).
L. Goldscheider, Rodin Sculptures, London, 1970, no. 49 (marble version illustrated).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 72, 90 and 108 (marble version illustrated, p. 77).
J. de Caso and P.B. Sanders, Rodin's Sculpture, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 149-152 (another cast illustrated, p. 148).
N. Barbier, Marbres de Rodin: Collection du Musée, Paris, 1987, p. 184, no. 79 (marble version illustrated, p. 185).
F.V. Grunfeld, Rodin, A Biography, New York, 1987, pp. 187-190, 221-222, 260, 262, 275-276, 281-282, 342, 373-374, 400, 577.
P. Kjelberg, Les bronzes du XIXème siéle, Paris, 1987, p. 585 (another cast illustrated).

Lot Essay

Le baiser was originally planned for one of the doors of La porte de l'Enfer but it was removed from the final design because Rodin considered it too large. The inspiration for the sculpture is taken from Dante's Inferno and represents the two lovers Paolo Malatesta and Francesca de Rimini. Of all Dante's love stories, this forbidden liaison, so reminiscent of courtly love, had the greatest resonance for a late 19th century audience. Although Le baiser is usually dated 1886, the subject was likely conceived much earlier. There is a similar group of embracing lovers in the clay model of La porte de l'Enfer which was probably executed not long after Rodin received the commission in 1880, and its subject and style is also related to L'éternel Printemps which was probably modeled in 1884. In 1887 Rodin excecuted a life-size version in painted plaster that came to be known as François da Reimini and he exhibited it in 1887 in Brussels. Following his election to the Legion d'Honneur that same year, the French government commissioned him to do a larger-than-life marble version of the plaster. Work progressed slowly and the marble sculpture, now known as Le baiser, was finally exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1898.

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