''Despair'' (french: Le Désespoir) or ''Despair at the Gate'' (french: Désespoir de la Porte) is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin that he conceived and developed from the early 1880s to c. 1890 as part of his ''

The Gates of Hell ''The Gates of Hell'' (french: La Porte de l'Enfer) is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the '' Inferno'', the first section of Dante Alighieri's ''Divine Comedy''. It stands at ...

'' project. The figure belongs to a company of damned souls found in the nine circles of Hell described by

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian people, Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', origin ...

in ''

The Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature an ...

''. Other title variations are '' Shade Holding her Foot'', ''Woman Holding Her Foot'', and ''Desperation'' (french: Les Désespérés). There are numerous versions of this work executed as both plaster and bronze casts and carved marble and limestone.

History and description

In the 1880s, Rodin created an initial version that was more upright and whose extended leg was almost vertical. This version of the figure appears several times in the right panel of ''The Gates of Hell''. Rodin returned to the figure around 1890. This time, the woman's extended leg is horizontal and she is clasping her left foot with both hands. This version of the figure is found in the upper left panel of ''The Gates of Hell''. When it was first exhibited as a stand-alone work, the statue was named ''Shade Holding Her Foot''. However, the unusual acrobatic pose doesn't correspond to any passage in ''The Divine Comedy'' or any other work of literature. It is more likely that Rodin just captured a moment when a tired model was stretching to relax her neck or back. When viewed from the side, the figure suggests a

truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...

with triangular units. It wasn't until 1900 that Rodin began describing the work as ''Despair''.

Copies

There are over a dozen versions of the work in several mediums at the

Musée Rodin The Musée Rodin ( en, Rodin Museum) in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919, primarily dedicated to the works of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. It has two sites: the Hôtel Biron and surrounding grounds in central Paris, as ...

. Other copies of the work can be found at: *

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

, London *

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

, New York *

Maryhill Museum of Art Maryhill Museum of Art is a small museum with an eclectic collection, located near what is now the community of Maryhill in the U.S. state of Washington. The museum is situated on a bluff overlooking the eastern end of the Columbia River Gorge. T ...

, Maryhill, Washington * Brooklyn Museum, New York *

National Museum of Western Art The is the premier public art gallery in Japan specializing in art from the Western tradition. The museum is in the museum and zoo complex in Ueno Park in Taitō, central Tokyo. It received 1,162,345 visitors in 2016. History The NMWA was es ...

, Tokyo * Stanford University, Stanford, California *

Rodin Museum The Rodin Museum is an art museum located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania that contains one of the largest collections of sculptor Auguste Rodin's works outside Paris. Opened in 1929, the museum is administered by the Philadelphia Museum of Art. T ...

, Philadelphia

Notes

References

* *

External links

* {{Auguste Rodin Sculptures by Auguste Rodin 1890s sculptures Sculptures of women Nude sculptures Works based on Inferno (Dante)

History and description

Copies

See also

Notes

References

External links