Orpheus and Eurydice

Auguste Rodin

modeled ca. 1887, carved 1893 · Marble · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The mythical poet Orpheus braved the underworld to rescue his dead wife, Eurydice. The gods allowed her ghost to follow him and regain life, provided that Orpheus did not look at her until both had reached the sunlit earth. Rodin depicts Eurydice’s spirit floating in the underworld’s dark entrance while Orpheus hesitates at the threshold. Because he cannot feel her phantom embrace, or hear her spectral voice, Orpheus turns to see if his beloved has come. An instant later he will glimpse her, and Eurydice will vanish. This exquisitely carved sculpture, one of the first Rodin works to come to America, is the only marble example of the composition.

Artist

Auguste Rodin

Date

modeled ca. 1887, carved 1893

Medium

Marble

Culture

French, Paris

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Thomas F. Ryan, 1910