Rodin Works: Eternal springtime, Zephyr & the Earth', 'Youth', 'Ideal'

Rodin's work 'Eternal Springtime' shows a passionate kiss between a rather dancing male figure and a kneeling female counterpart, lying in his arms. Like 'The Kiss', this sculpture is also an example of the great series of love couples of the 1880's and 1890's, including 'Fugit Amor' and 'The Eternal Idol'. In 1884, Rodin executed his work with the titles 'Zephyr and the Earth', 'Youth' and 'Ideal'. In 1898, when the group was exhibited at the Salon, it was called 'Cupid and Psyche'.

The 'Torso of Adèle' that Rodin modeled in 1882 (or even as early as autumn 1880 ) was used for the female character and included in the new composition, like Rodin did with many of his figures. In 'The Fallen Angel', we find the complete female figure of 'Eternal Springtime', this time combined with the 'The Caryatid'. 

First Rodin intended to include the work in the 'The Gates of Hell'; as a separate work, it became one of his most wide-spread sculptures. The style is rather conventional and reminds of Rodin's years as an assistant to Carrier-Belleuse and decorative worker at the Sèvres porcelain factory.

The plaster version that Rodin presented to the author Robert Louis Stevenson in 1885 can be seen in the Philadelphia Rodin Museum. There also exist some marble replicas which were modified at the basis.

To simplify the casting in bronze, a version with added attributes - the rock on which the male figure was leaning or the enlarged base which supported the right leg of the male lover - was used as a model in the foundry Leblanc-Barbédienne.  Although these additions limited the elan of the original version, this mass edition was highly popular and amounted to 141 copies in various sizes, produced between 1898 and 1918. 

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