The Kiss (Le Baiser)

model 1880-1887, cast c. 1898/1902

Auguste Rodin

Sculptor, French, 1840 - 1917

A man and woman embrace and kiss while sitting on a rocky formation in this free-standing bronze sculpture. Both people are nude, and they turn toward each other. In this photograph, to our right, the slender woman reaches her left arm, closer to us, up to wrap around the man’s neck. Her left breast is silhouetted against the man’s muscular chest. The woman’s raised arm covers most of their faces but the man turns his head down to meet hers. The man rests his right hand, closer to us, on her hip and she hooks one leg over his. His knees are angled to our left and he turns his torso toward her. The woman’s left toes brush his foot, just below hers. They sit on a textured, rock-like form. The surface of sculpture has a golden-brown patina, which darkens where the bodies fold and crease. The artist’s name is stamped into the seat, just below the woman’s hip: “RODIN.”

Media Options

Skip thumbnail navigation
Back to thumbnail navigation
This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

Nineteenth-century viewers and critics were immediately taken with Rodin's three-dimensional group, entitled Paolo and Francesca, the passionate lovers from the fifth canto of Dante's Inferno. When one enthusiastic critic referred to it as The Kiss, the new title stuck, and the association with Dante's ill-fated lovers gave way to a more contemporary, universal response to their passionate embrace.

By including only one specific reference to the lovers' story (Paolo holds in his left hand the book of courtly love they read together), Rodin encouraged viewers to become immersed in the spiraling rhythms of the entwined bodies and the sensuous finish of smooth limbs against pitted rock.

Rodin had intended to include this work in his monumental Gates of Hell, the high-relief sculptural doors that he would cover with figures from Dante's Divine Comedy. But the sculptor removed the pair of lovers from the Gates, instead developing it as an independent grouping. The original bronze sculpture (almost three feet high) was reproduced in bronze and marble, in both enlarged and reduced versions. The National Gallery's diminutive golden bronze work (under ten inches) is one of sixty-nine versions of this size. In 1902 Rodin presented it as a souvenir to a loyal American patron, Kate Simpson, after she posed for her portrait bust in the sculptor's Paris studio. It bears his personal inscription: "homage to Madame Kate Simpson in memory of hours in the studio. September 1902."

More information on this object can be found in the Gallery publication European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century, which is available as a free PDF https://www.nga.gov/content/dam/ngaweb/research/publications/pdfs/european-sculpture-19th-century.pdf

On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G2

Order reproductions from the Gallery Shop

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson

  • Dimensions

    overall: 24.7 x 15.8 x 17.4 cm (9 3/4 x 6 1/4 x 6 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.5.15

More About this Artwork

Article:  Going through Hell? See Dante’s “The Divine Comedy” in Art

Travel with artists through Dante’s Nine Circles of Hell.

Article:  34 Artworks About Love at the National Gallery

From first kisses to tragic romances, our collection abounds with love, in all its forms.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1902 from the artist by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Simpson, New York; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1965

  • Wax Sculptures by Degas, Sculptures and Drawings by Rodin, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965-1966, no cat.

1975

  • Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975-1976, no. 27d.

1981

  • Rodin Rediscovered, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1981-1982, not in cat.

1991

  • Genius Rodin: Eros und Kreativität, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany; Städtische Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Germany, 1991-1992, no. 14.

Bibliography

1883

  • Anonymous. "Current Art." Magazine of Art (1883): 176.

1884

  • Cartwright, Julia. "Francesco da Rimini." Magazine of Art (February 1884): 137-139.

1885

  • Mirbeau, Octave. "Chronique Parisienne." La France (18 February 1885).

1889

  • Bartlett, Truman H. "Auguste Rodin, Sculptor." American Architect and Building News (19 January-15 June 1889): 200, 223-225, 249.

1900

  • "Le Baiser dans l'oeuvre de Rodin." La Critique (20 November 1900).

1906

  • Lawton, Frederick. The Life and Work of Auguste Rodin. London, 1906: 62-63, 74, 109-110, 184.

1927

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. Paris, 1927: 47.

1944

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 58-59.

1959

  • Alley, Ronald. Tate Gallery Catalogues: The Foreign Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. London, 1959: 224-226.

1963

  • Elsen, Albert E. Rodin. New York, 1963: 62-63, 102-103, 134, 191, 199, 209.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 168.

1967

  • Descharnes, Robert, and Jean-François Chabrun. Auguste Rodin. Lausanne, 1967: 131-135.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 148, repro.

1975

  • Wasserman, Jeanne L., ed. Metamorphoses in Nineteenth-Century Sculpture. Exh. cat. Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1975: 168-176.

1977

  • de Caso, Jacques, and Patricia B. Sanders. Rodin's Sculpture: A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection. San Francisco, 1977: 148-153.

1981

  • Rosenfeld, Daniel. "Rodin's Carved Sculpture." In Rodin Rediscovered. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1981: 85-87.

1985

  • Elsen, Albert E. The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin. Stanford, 1985: 78-81.

1987

  • Barbier, Nicolle. Marbres de Rodin: collection du musée. Paris, 1987: 184-187.

  • Grunfeld, Frederic V. Rodin: A Biography. New York, 1987: 187-190.

1988

  • Beausire, Alain. Quand Rodin Exposait. Paris, 1988: 95, 96, 126, 211, 277, 327, 349, 351, 367.

  • Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte. Rodin: La collection du Brasseur Carl Jacobsen à la Glyptothèque. Copenhagen, 1988: 106-108.

1992

  • Barbier, Nicolle. Rodin sculpteur: Oeuvres méconnues. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1992: 187-190.

1993

  • Rosenfeld, Daniel G. "Auguste Rodin's Carved Sculpture." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1993: 529-540.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 204, repro.

1995

  • Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette. Le Baiser de Rodin. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1995: 244-319.

1996

  • Kausch, Michael. Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft. Exh. cat. Harrach Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1996: 146-147.

2000

  • Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 326-330, color repro.

2015

  • Barbour, Daphne, and Lisha Deming Glinsman. "August Rodin's Lifetime Bronze Sculptures in the Simpson Collection." Facture: conservation, science, art history 2 (2015): 54-81, figs. 5, 6.

Inscriptions

on front of rock, stamped below left hip of female figure: RODIN; on left side of rock, in script: hommage à Madame / Kate Simpson / en souvenir des heures / d'atelier Sept 1902 / A. Rodin; stamped below dedication is Collas metal inset: REDUCTION MÉCHANIQUE / A. COLLAS / BREVETE; by hand on right bottom edge, below right foot of male figure: F. BARBEDIENNE, Fondeur; stamped inside cast: R / 407

Markings

FM (below right foot of male figure): F. BARBEDIENNE Fondeur

Wikidata ID

Q63809261

You may be interested in

Loading Results