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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Auguste Rodin catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculpté currently being prepared by the Comité Rodin at Galerie Brame et Lorenceau under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay under the archive number 2004V505B.
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 was 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 Rodin probably executed not long after he 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 executed a life-size version in painted plaster that came to be known as François da Rimini and was exhibited in 1887 in Brussels. Following his election to the Legion d'Honneur that same year, the French government commissioned him to execute a monumental 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.
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 was 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 Rodin probably executed not long after he 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 executed a life-size version in painted plaster that came to be known as François da Rimini and was exhibited in 1887 in Brussels. Following his election to the Legion d'Honneur that same year, the French government commissioned him to execute a monumental 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.