Head of Sorrow (Tête de la Douleur)
Brooklyn Museum photograph
Caption
Auguste Rodin French, 1840–1917. Head of Sorrow (Tête de la Douleur), ca. 1882, enlarged ca. 1901–1902; cast before 1952. Bronze, 9 x 9 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (22.9 x 23.5 x 26.7 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 86.87.3. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 86.87.3_bw.jpg)
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Gallery
Not on view
Collection
Artist
Cast by
Title
Head of Sorrow (Tête de la Douleur)
Date
ca. 1882, enlarged ca. 1901–1902; cast before 1952
Geography
Place made: France
Medium
Bronze
Classification
Dimensions
9 x 9 1/4 x 10 1/2 in. (22.9 x 23.5 x 26.7 cm)
Signatures
Proper left neck: "A. Rodin" Cachet on interior, same placement as exterior signature: "A. Rodin"
Markings
Lower back edge: ".ALEXIS.RUDIER./FONDEUR. PARIS."
Credit Line
Gift of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
Accession Number
86.87.3
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
Frequent Art Questions
Tell me more.
This is the Head of Sorrow, which appeared four times in Rodin's conception of The Gates of Hell, an ambitious commission that was never completed as the funding fell through.Rodin reused and recycled various fragments and figures from the commission for individual pieces after the project fell through and the Head of Sorrow was one of the most often recycled body fragments.Because the head is androgynous, Rodin could use it for both male and female figures. This method, derived from the industrial concept of interchangeability, also aligned with Rodin's conviction that art is transformable, always alive, and never finished.Thank you so much for this!
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