The Gates of Hell
During our time in Paris, we encountered one of Auguste Rodin’s most ambitious creations, The Gates of Hell. More than six meters high and filled with nearly two hundred twisting, falling, and struggling figures, the monumental sculpture presents a vision of humanity suspended between suffering, judgment, and despair.
Rodin received the commission from the French government in 1880. The doorway was intended for a new museum of decorative arts planned for the site where the Musée d’Orsay now stands. Inspired largely by Dante’s Inferno, Rodin filled its surface with figures drawn from the poet’s journey through Hell, while also introducing forms and emotions from his own imagination.
Rodin continued revising the work for nearly four decades, but the proposed museum was never constructed and the doorway was not cast in bronze during his lifetime. Several figures developed for the project later became famous independent sculptures. The Thinker originally appeared above the doors contemplating the suffering below, while the embracing couple that became The Kiss also began as part of Rodin’s evolving design.
The plaster version displayed at the Musée d’Orsay reveals the work as Rodin developed it, with human figures emerging from and dissolving into the surface. Standing before it, it is difficult to take in the entire composition at once. The eye moves from one body to another, discovering new expressions and struggles within the crowded doorway. What began as an entrance to a museum that was never built became a lifelong project and one of the defining works of modern sculpture.
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