The Kiss|Auguste Rodin |Search Collection | The National Museum of Western Art

Updated 08 April 2025

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Photo by (c) Norihiro Ueno

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Auguste Rodin

Paris, 1840 - Meudon, 1917

The Kiss

Date	c. 1882-87 (model)
Materials and Techniques	bronze
Size（cm）	87 x 51 x 55
Inscriptions	Signed upper back of base: A. Rodin; foundry mark lower right back of base: Alexis RUDIER / Fondeur. Paris
Credit Line	Matsukata Collection
Standard ref.	M1252
Category	Sculptures
Collection Number	S.1959-0004

This work recalls the tragic love of Paolo and Francesca in Dante's Divine Comedy. Its silhouette can be found in the study plaster for The Gates of Hell. The Kiss as an independent sculpture from The Gates, however, represents the universal love, apart from the story of Paolo and Francesca. This couple did not burn in the hell fires of carnal love. Instead Rodin used them to symbolize the triumph of pure passionate love. Rodin commented "Love is the Flower of Life" as he posed a young couple in this pose in his studio to capture a realistic effect. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 136)

Provenance

Bought from Musée Rodin by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite, ca. April 1919, as ‘Baiser’(Fr. 25,000) [see several letters between Bénédite and Suzuki & Co., April 1919, in Archives of Musée Rodin, Paris; copy in NMWA curatorial files]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.

Exhibition History

1966: Rodin, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 23 July 1966 - 11 September 1966, cat. no. 63
1989: Rodin et la Porte de l’Enfer (Rodin and the Gates of Hell), National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 21 October 1989 - 17 December 1989, cat. no. 14
1990: Kindai Chokoku no Nagare, Asahikawa Museum of Art, 29 September 1990 - 4 November 1990, cat. no. 2, repr.
1996: Camille Claudel, The Bunkamura Museum of Art, 1 June 1996 - 14 July 1996, Yamaguchi Prefectural Museum of Art, 20 july-18 August, cat. no. 79, repr.
1997: Resonating Love and Life: European Art from National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The Niigata Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Nagaoka, 12 April 1997 - 18 May 1997, cat. no. 35
2001: Rodin et le Japon, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, 28 April 2001 - 10 June 2001, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 June-19 August, cat. no. 190, col. repr.
2015: Japan's Love for Impressionism: From Monet to Renoir, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 8 October 2015 - 21 February 2016, cat. no. 86, col. repr.
2017: [Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017] Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: From the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, Fukushima Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 April 2017 - 2 July 2017, Akita Museum of Modern Art, 15 July-18 September, cat. no. 68
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 81, col. repr.

Bibliography

1966: Nakamura, Denzaburo. Nihon-Chokoku-si no naka-no Rodin. Mizue. no. 739, 9 1966, pp. 49-63, repr. p. 55.
1990: The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. S-18.
1990: Kindai Chokoku no Nagare: Seiyo to Nihon (exh. cat.). Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, ed. Asahikawa, Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art, 1990, pp. 17, 78, cat. no. 2, repr.
1996: Camille Claudel (exh. cat.). APT International, ed. [Tokyo], APT International, 1996, pp. 150-153, 197, cat. no. 79, repr.
2001: Rodin et le Japon (exh.cat.). Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art; Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, eds. Contemporary Sculpture Center, 2001, pp. 203, 338, cat. no. 190, col. repr.
2006: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 136, repr.
2009: Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 136, repr.
2013: Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 135, col. repr.
2015: Japan's Love for Impressionism: From Monet to Renoir (exh. cat.). Marks-Hanssen, Beate, ed. Bonn, Bundeskunsthalle, 2015, pp. 144, 246, cat. no. 86, col. repr.
2017: Muse: Women before the Artists' Eyes: from the Collection of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo: Traveling Exhibitions Presenting National Art Museum Collections, Fiscal 2017 (exh. cat.). Nakada, Asuka, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2017, pp. 96, 141, cat. no. 68, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 161, 164, 362, cat. no. 81, col. repr.
2019: The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 2: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints and Decorative Arts and Other Works, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2019, cat. no. 1252, col. repr.

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