Eternal Spring

Auguste Rodin

modeled ca. 1881, carved 1907 · Marble · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

The woman arches her torso in willful surrender to her partner, who bends at his ease to kiss her. Rodin temepered the work’s overt eroticism by giving it a variety of classicizing titles. First called Zephyr and Earth and later exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1897 as Cupid and Psyche, the composition’s true subject is sensuality and impassioned lovemaking. This marble version, commissioned in 1906 by the railroad investor and banker Isaac D. Fletcher, displays the soft, veiled quality of carving associated with Rodin’s late marbles.

Artist

Auguste Rodin

Date

modeled ca. 1881, carved 1907

Medium

Marble

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Bequest of Isaac D. Fletcher, 1917