Image: public domain, courtesy of Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington

The Kiss (Le Baiser)

Auguste Rodin, 1880–1887

A man and a woman sit close together on a rough rock in a tender embrace: her arm is around his neck, and his hand rests gently on her hip. Rodin first imagined them as Paolo and Francesca, the lovers from Dante's poem, and this small golden-brown bronze is a reduced copy of his famous group.

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Did you know?

Rodin first named the group after Francesca da Rimini, who with Paolo forms a pair of lovers in Dante's Inferno.
In Dante's poem the two fell in love while reading a story about Lancelot, and in the large marble versions Paolo holds a small book.
The couple was first made for The Gates of Hell, Rodin's huge bronze doorway, but he later took it out and made it a separate work.
The simple title The Kiss was not chosen by Rodin: it came from critics and the public who saw the work.
In 1888 the French state ordered a large marble version, and it took about ten years to finish.
This small bronze was cast by the Barbedienne foundry, which made reduced bronze copies of The Kiss.

About the artist

Auguste Rodin (1840–1917) was born in Paris and worked there and in nearby Meudon.

Often called the father of modern sculpture, he is famous for The Thinker, first imagined as the poet Dante, as well as The Kiss and The Burghers of Calais.

The École des Beaux-Arts turned him down three times, yet he never gave up and worked for years as a decorative craftsman until his talent was recognized.

Auguste Rodin ›

Where it is today: Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington · Museum page