“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

• Name:               François-Auguste-René Rodin
• Born:                1840 – Paris, France
• Died:                 1917 (aged 77) – Meudon, France
• Nationality:        French
• Notable works:
  • Eternal Springtime (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • Two Hands (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Cathedral (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Hand of God (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Thinker (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Gates of Hell (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • “The Gates of Hell” by Auguste Rodin (Kunsthaus Zürich)
  • The Hand from the Tomb (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Sirens (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • Young Mother in the Grotto (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • Colossal Head of Saint John the Baptist (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Secret (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • The Thinker at the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia (Full Size)
  • The Thinker at the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia (Medium Size)
  • The Thinker ( Cleveland Museum of Art)
  • The Thinker (The Legion of Honor)
  • The Burghers of Calais (Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden)
  • The Burghers of Calais (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • “The Burghers of Calais” by Auguste Rodin (Washington, D.C.)
  • “The Burghers of Calais” by Auguste Rodin (Tokyo)
  • Balzac (Rodin Museum, Philadelphia)
  • Eve (Musée Rodin, Paris)
  • Adam (Art Gallery of Western Australia)
  • The Kiss (Musée Rodin, Paris)
  • Orpheus and Eurydice (Metropolitan Museum of Art – MET)

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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Rodin “Eternal Spring” Bronze, ca. 1900 | Extraordinary Finds

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“I invent nothing, I rediscover.” 
– Auguste Rodin

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Photo Credit: GM

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