Eternal Spring
European Art

Eternal Spring
Artwork Details
Artist/Maker
Auguste Rodin
French, 1840–1917
French, 1840–1917
Date
1884, cast 1963
Medium
Bronze
Accession #
1977.132
Dimensions
26 x 28 1/2 x 16 inches
Location
On View - Stent Family Wing, Level 2, Gallery 207
Description
Auguste Rodin’s sculptures are often called Impressionist because of the way their surfaces catch and reflect light and set up optical color vibrations like Impressionist paintings. In fact, Rodin was closely linked with Claude Monet, bound by a lifelong friendship and mutual admiration, and the two artists regularly exhibited their works together with the gallerist Georges Petit, an important promoter of Impressionism.
Rodin began work on Eternal Spring soon after he met Camille Claudel, the sculptor with whom he would embark on a tumultuous relationship. The erotic charge of the composition may thus have a biographical background.