FRENCH SCULPTURE CENSUS / RÉPERTOIRE DE SCULPTURE FRANÇAISE

RODIN, Auguste Paris 1840 - Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine 1917

L'Éternel Printemps Eternal Springtime [Museum's Title: Eternal Spring] modeled 1884? bronze group

Acc. No.: Credit Line:

Photo credit: Website of The R. W. Norton Art Gallery, Shreveport, Louisiana © Artist :

Shreveport, Louisiana, The R.W. Norton Art Gallery www.rwnaf.org

Bibliography

Museum's website, September 25, 2015

2007 Le Normand-Romain (français) Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, avec la collaboration d'Hélène Marraud et Diane Tytgat, introductions par Dr. Ruth Butler et Mr. Régis Cusinberche, Rodin et le bronze. Catalogue des œuvres conservées au musée Rodin, 2 volumes, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 331-337, L'Éternel Printemps, 1884 ?, cet exemplaire non mentionné dans ce catalogue

2007 Le Normand-Romain (English) Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, with the collaboration of Hélène Marraud and Diane Tytgat, introductions by Dr. Ruth Butler and Mr. Régis Cusinberche, The Bronzes of Rodin. Catalogue of works in the Musée Rodin, 2 volumes, English version, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 331-337, Eternal Springtime, 1884?, this bronze not mentioned in this catalogue

Comment

Museum's website, September 25, 2015: After Rodin had become famous as a result of both his sculpture and the frequent controversies surrounding it, he was hired, as one of the rare fine artists to have begun his career as the graduate of a school for artisans, to sculpt a pair of giant doors for a planned museum of decorative arts. These became his famous project, (though, like the museum, they were never completed). However, Rodin used these designs for the doors to experiment with and the sculptures originally created with The Gates in mind are among his most famous. His original concept was to base them on Dante's Inferno. L'Eternel Printemps probably began, like The Kiss, as a take on the story of Paolo and Francesca. Fairly quickly, however, Rodin decided instead to model it upon the myth of Cupid and Psyche and it was under that title that it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1877. Rodin later changed the name to L'Eternel Printemps or Eternal Spring because he wanted its lovers to be a universal symbol of both the lyricism and eroticism of first love and so they have been perceived ever since.