Collection

Despair, Known as Despair from the Gates (Le Désespoir dit de la Porte)

Auguste Rodin

Brooklyn Museum photograph

Object Label

This small female figure pulling one foot up to meet her bowed head appears three times in the right panel of The Gates of Hell. Her acrobatic pose reflects Rodin’s interest in dance, as well as his desire to capture expressive postures not typically seen in academic sculpture.

Caption

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917). Despair, Known as Despair from the Gates (Le Désespoir dit de la Porte), 1880–1889, cast 1959. Bronze, 7 1/4 × 3 1/2 × 3 3/4 in., 2 lb. (18.4 × 8.9 × 9.5 cm, 0.91kg). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 84.75.2. (Photo: Brooklyn Museum)

Gallery

Not on view

Title

Despair, Known as Despair from the Gates (Le Désespoir dit de la Porte)

Date

1880–1889, cast 1959

Geography

Place made: France

Medium

Bronze

Classification

Sculpture

Dimensions

7 1/4 × 3 1/2 × 3 3/4 in., 2 lb. (18.4 × 8.9 × 9.5 cm, 0.91kg)

Signatures

Proper left, bottom: "A. Rodin" Interior, stamped in raised letters: "A. Rodin"

Markings

Back, proper right, bottom: "Georges Rudier/Fondeur. Paris" Back, bottom: "© by Musée Rodin 1959"

Credit Line

Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

Accession Number

84.75.2

Frequent Art Questions

  • Can you tell me more about Rodin's fascination with dance as it relates to this piece?

    Rodin was very interested in the professionally trained body and he often hired athletes and dancers to walk around his studio.
    When one of them struck a pose that he liked, he would have them hold it, while he quickly made a clay model. His study of the body in motion informed his art practice and contributed to his recognition as one of the greatest sculptors of the human form.
    Rodin loved any dance that wasn't ballet! He enjoyed the dancehall can-can, and was fascinated by an emerging generation of dance radicals, such as Isadora Duncan and Vaslav Nijinsky, who had rejected the traditional, academic style of ballet in favor of a more expressive language of dance.
    Rodin used his significant influence (he was very well connected) to champion the careers of these dancers.
    Although Rodin sculpted many works, the best example in this exhibit is the small figure of "Despair" that you took a photo of.

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Artists and makers

Auguste Rodin

75 works in the collection

Georges Rudier Fondeur, Paris

25 works in the collection