Auguste Rodin
The Kiss
1879-1921
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Auguste Rodin
The Kiss
1879-1921
Physical Qualities
Bronze, 34 x 19 1/2 x 20 3/4 in. (86.4 x 49.5 x 52.7 cm.)
Credit Line
The Jacob Epstein Collection
Object Number
1951.128
"The Kiss" was originally part of the grand design for Auguste Rodin’s "The Gates of Hell," a project commissioned in 1880. The piece illustrates the first kiss between Paolo and Francesca, two star-crossed lovers in "The Divine Comedy," the epic 14th-century poem by Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). When the sculpture first debuted in the United States, it was judged to be pornographic, placed in a private room, and viewed only by special application. Avoiding ideal poses associated with Greek and Roman antiquity, Rodin created a new concept of the nude figure: imperfect, contemporary, and above all, human.
The Baltimore Museum of Art on deposit; The Baltimore Museum of Art on extended loan, 1929-1951; the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, by bequest, 1945; Jacob Epstein by purchase, 4 November 1927; Hector Brame [with Messrs. Templaire]; Gallery Georges Petit; public sale 7 December 1923; "This proof has been the object of an exchange between Rodin and the painter [Alfred?] Roll" (see letter dated 4 November 1927 from Hector Brame to Jacob Epstein, The Baltimore Museum of Art Registrar files)
Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth
Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern
Jacobs Wing Rotations 2021
Jacobs Wing Rotations 2022
Jacobs Wing Rotations 2023
Jacobs Wing Rotations 2024
A Century of Baltimore Collecting 1840-1940
Jacobs Wing Rotations 2025
Jeanne L. Wasserman, ed.,"Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture," Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Press, 1975, pp. 169-170, ill. p. 171.
Albert E. Elsen, "Rodin's Art: The Rodin Collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University," New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, no. 49, pp. 214-215.
Clarke, Jay A, "Becoming Edvard Munch: Influence, Anxiety, and Myth," The Art Institute of Chicago, New Haven and London: Yale University Press, p. 55, fig. 57.
Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette, ed. Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Clark Art Institute: Williamstown, MA, 2022
de Margerie, Laure and Antoinette Le Normand-Romain. French Sculpture: An American Passion. Paris: Institut national d'histoire de l'art, 2023. ill., p. 426
Inscribed: Rear base: Rodin
On View at the BMA
