“Eternal Springtime” by Auguste Rodin

“Eternal Springtime” by Auguste Rodin was modeled in clay during the same period as “The Kiss” in 1884. This sculpture depicts a pair of lovers caught in a floating embrace.

Their outstretched and graceful limbs are in sharp contrast to the compact, inward-focused sculpture of “The Kiss.”

This sculpture has an air of weightless and floating quality, which makes it a perfect ode to springtime love. Rodin created Eternal Springtime at a time when he was in a romantic relationship with Camille Claudel.

It is claimed that traces of Camille can be discerned in the women of this masterpiece and other female figures prominent in the works Rodin created in the mid-1880s. This work was reproduced several times in bronze and marble.

Eternal Springtime

Title: Eternal Springtime
Artist: Auguste Rodin
Year: Modelled in clay 1884; cast in bronze 1898 – 1918
Place of Origin: France
Material: Bronze
Museum: Rodin Museum, Philadelphia

Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin is generally considered the father of modern sculpture; he possessed a unique ability to model a complex and deeply pocketed surface in clay.

Many of his most notable sculptures were criticized during his lifetime.

Rodin’s most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, he modeled the human body with realism and with personal character and physicality.

By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist and remained one of the few sculptors widely known outside the arts community.

Auguste Rodin’s L’Eternel Printemps

Events during Rodin’s Lifetime

1840
- Auguste Rodin was born in Paris
- Claude Monet was born in Paris
1848
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto
1850
- The death of Honoré de Balzac
1859
- Charles Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species
1861-1865
- United States Civil War
1869
- Suez Canal opens
1886
- Statue of Liberty was Dedicated
1889
- Eiffel Tower construction concludes
1899
- Sigmund Freud publishes The Interpretation of Dreams
1900
- First Paris Metro opens during the Paris World’s Fair
1901
- The first major exhibition of Pablo Picasso’s artwork in Paris
1914 – 1918
- World War I
1915
- Albert Einstein publishes his General Theory of Relativity
1917
- Rodin dies

Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin’s Embracing Lovers

Bronze casting process I A modern take on Rodin’s work

Quotes by Auguste Rodin

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“People say I think too much about women, yet, after all, what is there more important to think about?

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“Love your calling with passion; it is the meaning of your life.”

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“Patience is also a form of action.”

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“Art is contemplation. It is the pleasure of the mind which searches into nature and which there divines the spirit of which nature herself is animated.”

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“The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire, and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation.”

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“To the artist, there is never anything ugly in nature.”

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“Art is the pleasure of a spirit that enters nature and discovers that it too has a soul.”

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“Sculpture is the art of the hole and the lump.”

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“Patience is also a form of action.”

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“Man’s naked form belongs to no particular moment in history; it is eternal and can be looked upon with joy by the people of all ages.”

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“True artists are almost the only people who do their work for pleasure.”

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“The main thing is to be moved, to love, to hope, to tremble, to live. Be a man before being an artist!”

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“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”

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“The human body is first and foremost a mirror to the soul, and its greatest beauty comes from that.”

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“I invent nothing, I rediscover.”

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“The more simple we are, the more complete we become.”

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“I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.”

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“I am like a moon that shines on an immense, unknown sea where ships never pass.”

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“To any artist, worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth.”

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