The Kiss (Rodin sculpture)
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''The Kiss'' (french: Le Baiser) is an 1882
marble Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or Dolomite (mineral), dolomite. Marble is typically not Foliation (geology), foliated (layered), although there are exceptions. In geology, the ...
sculpture Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
by the French sculptor
Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor, generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a uniqu ...
. The embracing nude couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of
relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...
s decorating Rodin's monumental
bronze Bronze is an alloy consisting primarily of copper, commonly with about 12–12.5% tin and often with the addition of other metals (including aluminium, manganese, nickel, or zinc) and sometimes non-metals, such as phosphorus, or metalloids such ...
portal ''
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 ...
'', commissioned for a planned museum of art in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
. The couple were later removed from the ''Gates'' and replaced with another pair of lovers located on the smaller right-hand column.


Background

The sculpture, ''The Kiss'', was originally titled ''
Francesca da Rimini Francesca da Rimini or Francesca da Polenta (died between 1283 and 1286) was a medieval noblewoman of Ravenna, who was murdered by her husband, Giovanni Malatesta, upon his discovery of her affair with his brother, Paolo Malatesta. She was a co ...
'', as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in
Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: '' ...
's ''Inferno'' (Circle 2, Canto 5) who falls in love with her husband
Giovanni Malatesta Giovanni Malatesta (died 1304), known, from his lameness, as Gianciotto, or Giovanni, lo Sciancato, was the eldest son of Malatesta da Verucchio of Rimini. From 1275 onwards he played an active part in the Romagnole Wars and factions. He is chie ...
's younger brother Paolo. Having fallen in love while reading the story of
Lancelot Lancelot du Lac (French for Lancelot of the Lake), also written as Launcelot and other variants (such as early German ''Lanzelet'', early French ''Lanselos'', early Welsh ''Lanslod Lak'', Italian ''Lancillotto'', Spanish ''Lanzarote del Lago' ...
and
Guinevere Guinevere ( ; cy, Gwenhwyfar ; br, Gwenivar, kw, Gwynnever), also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First ment ...
, the couple are discovered and killed by Francesca's husband. In the sculpture, the book can be seen in Paolo's hand. The lovers' lips do not actually touch in the sculpture, suggesting that they were interrupted and met their demise without their lips ever having touched. When critics first saw the sculpture in 1887, they suggested the less specific title ''Le Baiser'' (''The Kiss''). Rodin indicated that his approach to sculpting women was of homage to them and their bodies, not just submitting to men but as full partners in ardor. The consequent
eroticism Eroticism () is a quality that causes sexual feelings, as well as a philosophical contemplation concerning the aesthetics of sexual desire, sensuality, and romantic love. That quality may be found in any form of artwork, including painting, sculp ...
in the sculpture made it controversial. A bronze version of ''The Kiss'' ( high) was sent for display at the 1893
World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...
in
Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...
. The sculpture was considered unsuitable for general display and relegated to an inner chamber with admission only by personal application.


Small versions

Rodin's method of making large sculptures was to employ assistant sculptors to copy a smaller model made from a material which was easier to work than marble. Once they had finished, Rodin himself would put the finishing touches to the larger version. Before creating the marble version of ''The Kiss'', Rodin produced several smaller sculptures in
plaster Plaster is a building material used for the protective or decorative coating of walls and ceilings and for Molding (decorative), moulding and casting decorative elements. In English, "plaster" usually means a material used for the interiors of ...
,
terracotta Terracotta, terra cotta, or terra-cotta (; ; ), in its material sense as an earthenware substrate, is a clay-based ceramic glaze, unglazed or glazed ceramic where the pottery firing, fired body is porous. In applied art, craft, construction, a ...
and bronze.


Large marble carvings


French commission

In 1888, the French government ordered the first large-scale marble version of ''The Kiss'' from Rodin for the 1889 ''Exposition Universelle'', but it was publicly displayed for the first time in the '' Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts'' in 1898. It was so popular that the company '' Barbedienne'' offered Rodin a contract to produce a limited number of smaller copies in bronze. In 1900 the statue was moved to the
Musée du Luxembourg The Musée du Luxembourg () is a museum at 19 rue de Vaugirard in the 6th arrondissement of Paris. Established in 1750, it was initially an art museum located in the east wing of the Luxembourg Palace (the matching west wing housed the Marie de' ...
before being taken to its permanent location, 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 ...
, in 1918.


Warren's commission

In 1900, Rodin made a copy for
Edward Perry Warren Edward Perry Warren (January 8, 1860 – December 28, 1928), known as Ned Warren, was an American art collector and the author of works proposing an idealized view of homosexual relationships. He is now best known as the former owner of the Warr ...
, an eccentric American collector who lived in
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
in
Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...
,
England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, with his collection of
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
antiquities and his lover John Marshall. After seeing ''The Kiss'' in the Salon de Paris, the painter
William Rothenstein Sir William Rothenstein (29 January 1872 – 14 February 1945) was an English painter, printmaker, draughtsman, lecturer, and writer on art. Emerging during the early 1890s, Rothenstein continued to make art right up until his death. Though he c ...
recommended it to Warren as a possible purchase, but ''The Kiss'' had been commissioned by the French government and was not available for sale. In its place, Rodin offered to make a copy and Warren offered half of its original price (10,000 francs, instead of 20,000), but Rodin would not lower the price. The contract for the commission included that "the genitals of the man must be complete." A previous letter explained that "being a pagan and lover of antiquities", Warren hoped that the genitals of the man would be sculpted prominently in the Classical Greek tradition rather than modestly hidden. When the sculpture arrived in Lewes in 1904, Warren placed it in the stables at the back of his home, Lewes House, on School Hill, where it remained for a decade. It is not known whether this location was chosen due to the great size of the sculpture or because it did not fulfil Warren's expectations. In 1914 the sculpture was loaned to the Lewes
town council A town council, city council or municipal council is a form of local government for small municipalities. Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions. Republic of Ireland Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland were the second ti ...
and put on public display in
Lewes Town Hall Lewes Town Hall is a municipal building in the High Street in Lewes, East Sussex, England. The structure, which is the meeting place of Lewes Town Council, is a Grade II listed building. History In the medieval period, the site of the town hall ...
. A number of puritanical local residents, led by headmistress Miss Kate Fowler Tutt, objected to the erotic nature of the sculpture. They were particularly concerned that it might encourage the ardour of the large number of soldiers who were billeted in the town at that time, and successfully campaigned to have the sculpture draped and screened from public view. It was returned to Warren's residence at Lewes House in 1917 where it remained stored in the stable for 12 years until Warren's death in 1928. The beneficiary of Warren's will, H. Asa Thomas, put the sculpture up for sale with Gorringes, the local auctioneers, but it failed to meet its reserve price and was withdrawn from sale. A few years later it was loaned to the
Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
in
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
. In 1955 the Tate bought the sculpture for the nation at a cost of £7,500. In 1999 between 5 June and 30 October, ''The Kiss'' returned briefly to Lewes as part of an exhibition of Rodin's works. Its permanent home is the
Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...
, however in September 2007, the work was displayed at the
Tate Liverpool Tate Liverpool is an art gallery and museum in Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and part of Tate, along with Tate St Ives, Cornwall, Tate Britain, London, and Tate Modern, London. The museum was an initiative of the Merseyside Development Corpo ...
,
Albert Dock Albert Dock may refer to: *Albert Dock, Hull, in Kingston upon Hull, England *Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool, a dock and warehouse system in Liverpool, England *Royal Albert Dock, London The Royal Albert Dock is one of three docks in the Royal ...
for the duration of the celebrations surrounding both that city's 8th Centenary and Liverpool's European Capital of Culture status in 2008. It was next on loan to
Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki is the principal public gallery in Auckland, New Zealand. It has the most extensive collection of national and international art in New Zealand and frequently hosts travelling international exhibitions. Set be ...
in Auckland, New Zealand until 16 July 2017. It was loaned to
Christchurch Mansion Christchurch Mansion is a substantial Tudor brick mansion house built in Ipswich, Suffolk by Edmund Withypoll (also written "Withipoll") around 1548–50. The Grade I listed building is located within Christchurch Park and sits by the souther ...
in Ipswich, UK for the 'Kiss and Tell' exhibition running from November 2018 to April 2019.


Jacobsen's commission

A third replica was commissioned in 1900 by
Carl Jacobsen Carl Christian Hillman Jacobsen (2 March 1842 – 11 January 1914) was a Danish brewer, art collector and philanthropist. Though often preoccupied with his cultural interests, Jacobsen was a shrewd and visionary businessman and initiated the tra ...
for his projected museum in
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
,
Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...
. The replica was made in 1903, and became part of the initial collection of the
Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek The Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek ("ny" means "new" in Danish; "Glyptotek" comes from the Greek root ''glyphein'', to carve, and ''theke'', storing place), commonly known simply as Glyptoteket, is an art museum in Copenhagen, Denmark. The collection ...
, inaugurated in 1906.


Other versions

The three larger marble versions were exhibited together at the
Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...
in 1995. A fourth copy, about in height – compared to for the copy in Paris – was made after the death of Rodin by sculptor
Henri-Léon Gréber Henri-Léon Greber (28 May 1854 – 4 June 1941) was a French sculptor, and medallist. His son was the architect Jacques Gréber. Active in the United States, he produced a fountain sculpture of four equestrian statues for Harbor Hill in 1910, ...
for the
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 ...
of
Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. A plaster cast can be found in the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes of Buenos Aires. A large numbers of bronze casts have been done of ''The Kiss''. The Musée Rodin reports that the Barbedienne foundry alone produced 319. According to French law issued in 1978, only the first twelve can be called original editions.


Cornelia Parker

In Spring 2003, artist
Cornelia Parker Cornelia Ann Parker (born 14 July 1956) is an English visual artist, best known for her sculpture and installation art.intervened in ''The Kiss'' (1886) with the permission of the
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
gallery, where it was exhibited at the time, by wrapping the sculpture in a mile of string. This was a historical reference to
Marcel Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
's use of the same length of string to create a web inside a gallery in 1942. Although the intervention had been endorsed by the gallery, many viewers of the sculpture felt it offensive to the original artwork, prompting a further, unauthorised, intervention, in which Parker's string was cut by Stuckist Piers Butler, while couples stood around engaging in live kissing.


Popular culture

''The Kiss'' is said to have been the influence for the song "Turn Of The Century", found on the 1977 release of "
Going for the One ''Going for the One'' is the eighth studio album by English progressive rock band Yes, released on 15 July 1977 by Atlantic Records. After taking a break in activity in 1975 for each member to release a solo album, and their 1976 tour of the Uni ...
" by the British band Yes. ''The Kiss'' is figured into the plot of the ''
All in the Family ''All in the Family'' is an American television sitcom that aired on CBS for nine seasons, from January 12, 1971, to April 8, 1979. Afterwards, it was continued with the spin-off series '' Archie Bunker's Place'', which picked up where ''All in ...
'' episode "Archie and ''The Kiss''," where Archie Bunker tries to make his daughter, Gloria, give back a reproduction of the sculpture she had been given by the Bunkers' friend, Irene Lorenzo. Archie expresses his disgust over the morality of the sculpture and sexuality in artwork. The statue is used for a
Terry Gilliam Terrence Vance Gilliam (; born 22 November 1940) is an American-born British filmmaker, comedian, animator, actor and former member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam has directed 13 feature films, including ''Time Bandits'' (1981), ''B ...
animation in ''
Monty Python's Flying Circus ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'' (also known as simply ''Monty Python'') is a British surreal sketch comedy series created by and starring Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Terry Gilliam, who became known ...
''. The female extends her left leg straight out, and the male moves his right hand over it, covering holes with the fingers and playing her like an ocarina. The same statue was later shown briefly in the movie '' 12 Monkeys'', also directed by Gilliam. ''The Kiss'' was part of a side story in Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney's debut novel '' The Nest'' (2016), where the sculpture is stolen from the rubble of
ground zero In relation to nuclear explosions and other large bombs, ground zero (also called surface zero) is the point on the Earth's surface closest to a detonation. In the case of an explosion above the ground, ''ground zero'' is the point on the ground ...
after
9/11 The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...
. The local
Lewes Lewes () is the county town of East Sussex, England. It is the police and judicial centre for all of Sussex and is home to Sussex Police, East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Lewes Crown Court and HMP Lewes. The civil parish is the centre of ...
brewer, Harvey's Brewery, have brewed a beer named "Kiss", featuring a picture of ''The Kiss'' on its label, which is on sale in bottles and draught form around St Valentine's Day on 14 February. In January 2004, the work was the subject of Episode 3 of the
BBC Wales BBC Cymru Wales is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Wales. It is one of the four BBC national regions, alongside the BBC English Regions, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Scotland. Established in 1964, BBC Cymru Wales is ...
documentary series ''
The Private Life of a Masterpiece ''The Private Life of a Masterpiece'' is a BBC arts documentary series which tells the stories behind great works of art; 29 episodes of the series were broadcast on BBC Two, commencing on 8 December 2001 and ending on 25 December 2010. It initia ...
'', broadcast on
BBC Two BBC Two is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It covers a wide range of subject matter, with a remit "to broadcast programmes of depth and substance" in contrast to the more mainstream an ...
.


Notes


References

* Hale, William Harlan. ''The World of Rodin 1840–1917''. New York: Time-Life Library of Art, 1969.


External links


Link to ''The Kiss''
on the official website of the Musée Rodin.
''The Kiss'', Analysis and Critical Reception

Kiss''
Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at
Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
, Object Number 1974.36, bronze cast No. 9.
''Ny Calsberg Glyptotoek''
Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...
, Denmark
''Tate Britain''
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
, England
''Alighieri, Dante. Inferno, Canto V''

TateShots video
a short video of the work from
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in ...
*
Rodin: The B. Gerald Cantor Collection
', a full text exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on ''The Kiss'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Kiss, The Sculptures by Auguste Rodin 1889 sculptures Kissing Sculptures of the Tate galleries Works based on Inferno (Dante) Cultural depictions of Francesca da Rimini Nude sculptures in France Sculptures of the Musée Rodin