The Three Shades

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Les Trois Ombres
Auguste Rodin, The three shades (Les Trois Ombres), for the top of The Gates of Hell, before 1886, plaster.jpg
Les Trois Ombres, plaster original, Musée Rodin, Paris, 1886
Artist Auguste Rodin
MediumPlaster, later bronze

The Three Shades (Les Trois Ombres) is a sculptural group produced in plaster by Auguste Rodin in 1886 for his The Gates of Hell . [1] [2] He made several individual studies for the Shades before finally deciding to put them together as three identical figures gathered around a central point. The heads hang low so that the neck and shoulders form an almost-horizontal plane. They were to be placed above the gates looking down on the viewer. [3]

Contents

Casts

It was later cast in bronze in several editions, with such casts now in the Musée Rodin in Paris, [4] the Cantor Sculpture Garden at Stanford University, in the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, the Museo Soumaya in Mexico, and the Dixon Gallery and Gardens in Memphis, TN. An autograph plaster copy dating to 1917 is also in the Musée d'arts de Nantes. [5] [6]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>The Gates of Hell</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Gates of Hell is a monumental bronze sculptural group work by French artist Auguste Rodin that depicts a scene from the Inferno, the first section of Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. It stands at 6 metres high, 4 metres wide and 1 metre deep (19.7×13.1×3.3 ft) and contains 180 figures.

<i>Eternal Springtime</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Eternal Springtime is a c. 1884 sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, depicting a pair of lovers. It was created at the same time as The Gates of Hell and originally intended to be part of it. One of its rare 19th-century original casts belongs to the permanent collection of Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.One of its largest marble versions belongs to the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

<i>Man with the Broken Nose</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Man with the Broken Nose is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin created between 1863 and 1864 and approved by the Salon in 1875. It is considered the first by Rodin in which life is represented over the grace pervading the academic circles and aesthetic of the time.

<i>Fugitive Love</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

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.

<i>Ugolino and His Sons</i> (Rodin) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Ugolino and his sons is a plaster sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, part of the sculptural group known as The Gates of Hell. As an independent piece, it was exhibited by its author in Brussels (1887), Edinburgh (1893), Genoa (1896), Florence (1897), Netherlands (1899) and in his own retrospective in 1900.

<i>Standing Mercury</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Standing Mercury is a bronze sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, first exhibited in 1888. Rodin depicts the mythological god Mercury, son of Maia and Jupiter—messenger of the gods and guide to the Underworld—as a young man, representing eloquence and reason. This depiction is opposite to the traditional representation of Hermes, its Greek counterpart, as a mature man.

<i>Bust of Victor Hugo</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Bust of Victor Hugo is an 1883 patinated plaster sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin of the Romantic writer Victor Hugo. It is now in the Museo Soumaya, in Mexico City.

<i>Danaid</i> (Rodin) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Danaid is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, based on the account in the Metamorphoses of Hypermnestra, eldest of the Danaïdes.

<i>Eve</i> (Rodin) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Eve is a nude sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin. It shows Eve despairing after the Fall.

<i>The Old Tree</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Old Tree is a plaster sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, originally conceived as part of his The Gates of Hell project.

<i>The Kneeling Man</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Kneeling Man is a work originally conceived in 1888 by the French artist Auguste Rodin for his The Gates of Hell project.

<i>Glaucus</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Glaucus is a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, first conceived in 1886 as a representation of the mythological figure Glaucus, son of Poseidon. Originally made in plaster, bronze casts of it are now in the Brooklyn Museum and the Museo Soumaya.

<i>Young Mother</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Young Mother is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin with a brown and green patina, conceived in 1885 and cast by the Rudier Foundry.

<i>The Shade</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

The Shade, The Slave or The Titan is a sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin.

<i>Ovids Metamorphoses</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Ovid's Metamorphoses or The Satyrs is a sculpture by Auguste Rodin, created as part of The Gates of Hell.

<i>Octave Mirbeau</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Octave Mirbeau is an 1895 plaster relief by Auguste Rodin of the writer Octave Mirbeau, now in the Museo Soumaya. He had got to know him thanks to The Age of Bronze and The Gates of Hell - Mirbeau visited Rodin's studio, published the first description of Gates in the review La France, promoted Rodin's other work and died only a few months before the sculptor.

<i>Polyphemus</i> (sculpture) Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Polyphemus is an 1888 sculpture by Auguste Rodin, showing Polyphemus and his love for the Nereid Galatea, as told in Book XIII of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

<i>Torso of Adele</i> Sculpture by Auguste Rodin

Torso of Adele is an 1878-1884 sculpture by the French artist Auguste Rodin, originally modelled in plaster before being worked in terracotta.

References

  1. Cheruy, Rene. "Rodin Won Fame Through Poverty." Hartford, Connecticut: The Hartford Daily Courant, January 20, 1929, p. E5 (subscription required).
  2. Fried, Alexander. "Rodin—A Master Sculptor's Art Again Flourishes." San Francisco, California: The San Francisco Examiner, October 13, 1963, "Show Time" section, pp. 1, 17 (subscription required).
  3. Cheruy, Rene. "Rodin's 'Gates of Hell' Comes to America." Billings, Montana: The Billings Gazette, January 29, 1929, pp.8-9, 12 (subscription required).
  4. Notice complète de l'œuvre Les Trois Ombres Archived 2017-04-04 at the Wayback Machine on the musée Rodin site
  5. Cheruy, "Rodin's 'Gates of Hell' Comes to America," The Billings Gazette, January 29, 1929, pp.8-9, 12.
  6. Moffat, Frances. "The 'Three Shades' Are About to Hit the Road." San Francisco, California: The San Francisco Examiner, February 3, 1963, "Society" section, p. 2 (subscription required).