Fugitive Love

Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Fugitive Love

French: L'amour Fugitive

Fugitive Love in white marble

Artist| Auguste Rodin
Year| 1886 (1886)
Type| sculpture
Medium| marble, bronze
Dimensions| 43.6 cm × 49.8 cm × 29.7 cm (17.7 in × 19.6 in × 11.7 in)
Location| Museo Soumaya

Fugitive Love is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin made between 1886 and 1887, both sculpted in marble and cast in bronze. It represents a man and a woman embracing each other on top of a rock. More specifically, the author was inspired by the story of Francesca da Rimini's love affair with Paolo Malatesta, an allusion to Dante Alighieri's depiction of lust on the second circle of Hell in his Inferno.

## Gates of hell[edit]

The sculpture is also part of Rodin's monumental group The Gates of Hell, where it can be found in the right gate. Even though the group was already recognized on its own, Rodin decided to put it in his Gates partly to replace another iconic sculpture: The Kiss which had been removed due to its theme being inconsistent with the rest of the group.[Note 1] The sculpture shows a man trying to hold a woman who is trying to escape, whose posture is reminiscent of water or air. This is the "fugitive love".[1]

Fugitive Love appeared in the Georges Petit gallery in 1887. There, it was discovered and appreciated by art critic Gustave Geffroy, who wrote: "the group presents the impatient and fierce race of a woman who carries at her back, as if chained, her victim, an inanimate and rigid man. The woman's back sinks, the man's torso flattens, his legs dangle and an arabesque of limbs is drawn".[2]

The sculpture was exhibited again at the Georges Petit gallery in 1889, along with the exhibition of impressionist artist Claude Monet. It was so acclaimed that it was reproduced both in white marble and bronze.

Fugitive Love, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation

Like other sculptures by Rodin, Fugitive Love is made from joining together other pieces and studies. The man is reminiscent of The prodigal son and was inspired by Rodin's studies for Head of Sorrow (also known as Joan of Arc), while its tragic face comes from Paolo and Francesca.[3]

## See also[edit]

* List of sculptures by Auguste Rodin

## Notes[edit]

1. ^ Rodin deemed The Kiss too idyllic and romantic to be depicted in the middle of repentant souls. He decided to take it away from The Gates but was decided to work on it separately.

## References[edit]

1. ^ Museo Soumaya (2016). La puerta del Infierno [The Gates of Hell] (in Spanish). Mexico City: Fundacion Carlos Slim. pp. 312–314. ISBN 9786077805182.
2. ^ Le Normand Romain, Anoinette (2002). Rodin La puerta del Infierno [Rodin, the Gates of Hell]. Edwige Ridel, Annie Claude Demagny & Vincent Brocvielle. p. 52\. ISBN 2901428762.
3. ^ Museo Soumaya (2014). La era de Rodin [The Age of Rodin] (in Spanish). Mexico City: Fundacion Carlos Slim. pp. 60–61. ISBN 9789687794365.

## External links[edit]

Media related to Fugitive Love by Auguste Rodin at Wikimedia Commons

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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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