Despair (sculpture)

Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Despair

A bronze cast of the sculpture in a marble base at the Musée Rodin

Artist| Auguste Rodin
Year| c. 1890

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 project. The figure belongs to a company of damned souls found in the nine circles of Hell described by Dante in The Divine Comedy.[1][2] Other title variations are Shade Holding her Foot, Woman Holding Her Foot, and Desperation (French: Les Désespérés).[3][4] There are numerous versions of this work executed as both plaster and bronze casts and carved marble and limestone.[5][6]

## History and description

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The work viewed from the side highlighting its triangular elements

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.[7] 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.[8] This version of the figure is found in the upper left panel of The Gates of Hell.[3]

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.[8] When viewed from the side, the figure suggests a truss with triangular units.[9]

It wasn't until 1900 that Rodin began describing the work as Despair.[1][8]

## Copies

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There are over a dozen versions of the work in several mediums at the Musée Rodin.[4][10] Other copies of the work can be found at:

* Victoria and Albert Museum, London[11]
* Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York[12]
* Maryhill Museum of Art, Maryhill, Washington[13]
* Brooklyn Museum, New York[7]
* National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo[14]
* Stanford University, Stanford, California[15]
* Rodin Museum, Philadelphia[16]

## See also

[edit]

* List of sculptures by Auguste Rodin

## Notes

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1. ^ a b "Despair". Musée Rodin. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
2. ^ "Désespoir, grande modèle (version avec base découpée sur socle de marbre)". Sotheby's. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
3. ^ a b Elsen & Jamison 2003, p. 258.
4. ^ a b "'Désespérés' search result". Musée Rodin. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
5. ^ "Désespoir de la Porte (Despair, from the Gates of Hell)". Bowman Sculpture. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
6. ^ Elsen & Jamison 2003, p. 261.
7. ^ a b "Despair, Known as Despair from the Gates (Le Désespoir dit de la Porte)". Brooklyn Museum. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
8. ^ a b c Elsen & Jamison 2003, p. 259.
9. ^ Lampert 1986, p. 83.
10. ^ "'Désespoir' search result". Musée Rodin. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
11. ^ "Despair". Victoria and Albert Museum. 1892. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
12. ^ "Despair". The Met. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
13. ^ "Museums 101: Rodin at Maryhill (Photo Diary)". Daily Kos. August 21, 2017. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
14. ^ "Despair". National Museum of Western Art. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
15. ^ "Despair (L'désespoir)". Cantor Arts Center. Retrieved 2019-09-09.
16. ^ "Despair". Rodin Museum. Retrieved 2019-09-08.

## References

[edit]

* Visual arts portal

* Elsen, Albert E; Jamison, Rosalyn Frankel (2003). Rodin's Art: The Rodin Collection of Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center of Visual Arts at Stanford University. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0198030614. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
* Lampert, Catherine (1986). Rodin: Sculpture & Drawings. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300038321. Retrieved 2019-09-08.

## External links

[edit]

* Media related to Despair by Auguste Rodin at Wikimedia Commons

* v
* t
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Auguste Rodin

Works|

* List of sculptures
* Man with the Broken Nose (1863)
* Alsatian Orphan (1871)
* Suzon (1872–73)
* The Age of Bronze (1876)
* La Defense (1879)
* The Maiden Kissed by the Ghost (1880)
* The Shade (1880)
* The Gates of Hell (1880/1917)
* The Thinker (1880, locations)
* Adam (1880–81)
* Eve (1881)
* Crouching Woman (1880–1882)
* Saint John the Baptist (1880/1907)
* Ugolino and His Sons (1881)
* The Kiss (1882)
* I Am Beautiful (1882)
* The Falling Man (1882)
* Jules Dalou (1883)
* Bust of Maurice Haquette (1883)
* Bust of Victor Hugo (1883)
* Eternal Springtime (1884)
* Torso of Adele (c. 1884)
* The Burghers of Calais (1884–1889)
* Head of Camille Claudel (1884/1911)
* The Prodigal Son (1885)
* Mask of a Weeping Woman (1885)
* The Martyr (1885)
* Psyche Looking at Love (1885)
* Eustache de Saint Pierre (1885–86)
* Jean d'Aire (1885–86)
* Jean de Fiennes (1885–86)
* Avarice and Lust (1885–1887)
* Damned Women (1885–1890)
* The Old Tree (1885)
* Paolo and Francesca (1885)
* Young Mother (1885)
* Young Mother in the Grotto (1885)
* Young Woman with a Serpent (c. 1885)
* The Three Shades (1886)
* Meditation (1886)
* Fugitive Love (1886–87)
* Ovid's Metamorphoses (1886–1889)
* Pierre de Wiessant (1887)
* Head of Saint John the Baptist (1887)
* The Sirens (1887)
* Polyphemus (1888)
* Standing Mercury (1888)
* The Kneeling Man (1888)
* Adonis Awakens (1889)
* Andromeda (1889)
* Glaucus (1889)
* Kneeling Female Faun (1889)
* The Succubus (1889)
* Despair (c. 1890)
* Brother and Sister (1890)
* Danaid (1890)
* Cybele (1890/1904)
* Monument to Balzac (1892–1897)
* Balzac in the Robe of a Dominican Monk (1892)
* Youth Triumphant (c. 1894)
* Octave Mirdeau (1895)
* Iris, Messenger of the Gods (c. 1895)
* Bacchantes Embracing (c. 1896)
* The Spirit of Eternal Repose (1898–99)
* Illusions Received by the Earth (pre-1900)
* The Athlete (1901–1904)
* The Death of Adonis (1903–1906)
* Adam and Eve (1905)
* The Walking Man (1907)
* The Cathedral (1908)
* The Prayer (1909)
* Standing Female Faun (1910)

Museums|

* Musée Rodin (Hôtel Biron), Paris
* Rodin Museum, Philadelphia
* Museu Rodin Bahia, Salvador
* Plateau (closed)

People|

* Camille Claudel

Depictions|

* 1888–89 Claudel bust
* 1909 Bourdelle bust
* Rodin — The Thinker (1902 photograph)
* Camille Claudel (1988 film)
* Camille Claudel (2003 musical)
* Camille Claudel 1915 (2013 film)
* Rodin (2017 film)

Related|

* Rodin (crater)

* Category
* Commons

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