The Kiss of Rodin

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

This famous group was to have been part of the monumental Gates of Hell, commissioned from Rodin by the future Museum of Decorative Arts, in Paris, a work which was not cast in bronze until after his death.

The two leaves of this door, covered with a crowd of intertwined characters, illustrate Dante’s Inferno. Among these figures, The Kiss was supposed to evoke an episode of the tragic passion of Paolo Malatesta for his sister-in-law Francesca de Rimini. In the end, Rodin decided not to include in the composition and presented it to the public as a sculpture on its own. The work was an immediate success and was made in marble and bronze in different sizes.

Among the couples of lovers, so frequent in the work of Rodin, The Kiss is far from being the boldest. Yet it has always been considered as the symbol of sensuality and its extraordinary fame can be explained by its powerful sensitivity and the skilful arrangement of its forms.

The words «Reproduction - musée Rodin - Paris» will guarantee the authenticity of the reproduction. © Musée Rodin - Paris