Rodin

Eve (After the Fall) by Auguste Rodin (1881/1903)

172.72 cm x 53.34 cm x 63.5 cm (68 in x 21 in x 25 in)

Bronze

Sculpture can be a hard medium to write about because its three-dimensionality translates poorly into flat pictures on a two-dimensional screen. Sculpture needs the viewer to walk around it, appreciating its contours and forms and its relationship to the space it occupies. In some ways, its interaction with the viewer can be even more personal than painting. This is true with this sculpture by Auguste Rodin.

Eve (After the Fall) was one of many figures created for Rodin’s unfinished Gates of Hell repurposed for a stand-alone sculpture. Some other works treated similarly are The Kiss and The Thinker. I decided to write about Eve because I have experienced this piece in person. There are several versions of this work, made from the same mold. This one is in my hometown gallery, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. I took these pictures myself (sorry) and wanted to share my experience. This essay’s impressions and observations are based solely on this specific cast.

Eve is life-sized. Because of this, I am able to gaze into her face and study the details of her form closely. (Too closely as it turned out. I received a firm warning from security as a result.) This work depicts an ashamed and frightened Eve as she is driven out of Eden. Her form twists and turns. Her limbs bend and fold over her body to try to hide her nudity and shame. Her left arm rises in a defensive gesture, hiding her face from the wrath of God.

The spiral twist of her body is so dramatic. She’s coiled tightly like a spring, and I can feel its tension and energy. Notice that the texture of the bronze surface is rough and looks unfinished. To me, it feels rushed and animated. Rodin is not so much depicting the judgement of Eve, but rather her emotional state. Rodin seems to have molded the clay quickly. It gives the work a desperate immediacy. Everything seems to have happened in Eden so fast. Adam and Eve ate, fell, and were punished. All this was new to them — to her. Rodin is capturing the speed at which everything changed. The drama of the choice and its consequences are a blur and are literally forged onto the bronze surface.

As mentioned above, Eve is life-sized, 5½ feet tall. For me, this matters. If she were smaller, I think the details in her pose and her face would be harder to see. If larger, her drama would be abstracted and unrelatable. Human-sized she becomes human. I see her face clearly and can look into her tear-filled eyes. I can see her mouth twisted in pain. I feel her shame and despair.

As I walked around her, I noticed how her curves and forms changed from different angles. It was like she was moving. It also seemed like she was writhing in pain. I like how the museum lit her with a bright light shining straight down that set her face in deep shadow. It reminds me of how she hides from the light of God and His presence. Her eyes look straight down, not forward to watch where she is going, and she appears to lean slightly to the left. To me, she looks close to stumbling as she runs. Eve flees in a sudden panic. This sculpture is so tragic and so emotional. Eve (After the Fall) is real, raw, heartbreaking, and beautiful.

This work is cared for by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York.