"Abandon all hope or you who enter". This is the warning given to us by this plaster cast by Rodin. The three men are, looking at them, all in the same depressed position: back bent, head down, one arm forward and one leg bent. How come? With the arm outstretched towards the ground, the white shadows seem to be sucked into by a dark underground force. And for good reason, they join the damned of Hell's Gate.
Part of a much more ambitious work, silhouettes dominate the composition.
The sculpture is inspired by Dante's Divine Comedy. After a work of modeling the clay, a plaster is cast, the first steps in the modeling of the sculpture before casting the bronze.
The state commissioned Rodin's Gate to Hell in 1880 to welcome visitors to the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, which the government intended to create. He had to bring together his most famous sculptures such as The Thinker or The Kiss. The work was never completed, however the artist exhibited a plaster version of it in a solo exhibition in 1900.
The Shadows entered the museum's collection in 1914, when Rodin was still alive. Forgotten in the reserves of state deposits for many years, they have deteriorated. The national inventory made it possible to rediscover the piece. In 2006 a restoration was undertaken for the work: the left arms of two figures were redone and everything was stabilized on a wooden support.
© Musée des beaux-arts de Quimper.
Title: The Shadow
Author: Auguste Rodin
Date: 1880-1886
Technique: Plaster cast
Displayed in: Quimper Museum of Fine Arts
All ongoing and upcoming exhibitions where there are works by