Eve, Bronze sculpture in Tuileries Garden, France
Eve is a nude female figure by Auguste Rodin, shown from the torso to the upper legs with her arms crossed over her chest and abdomen. The smooth pale upper body contrasts with a rough, unpolished stone support at her right side. The figure twists slightly, one thigh angled forward, the other leg partly behind the jagged base.
The original was created by Rodin in 1881 and belongs to his ambitious project The Gates of Hell. A bronze cast was made in 1899 and has since been placed in various collections and public spaces.
Rodin shows Eve after the Fall, hiding her face in her arms, and the title given to the work in French is Ève. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke described her as a woman enclosed in her own arms, hands turned outward as if to push away everything, even her changing body. Félicien Fagus, writing in La revue blanche in 1889, called her a powerful creature burdened by maternal responsibility rather than a vicious Eve.
The sculpture is located in Tuileries Garden and is easily accessible via the main paths, especially near the Musée de l'Orangerie. Visitors can view the statue from various angles depending on their route through the garden.
Rodin left the surface rough and kept the mark of the metal armature on the figure's right foot, signs of unfinished work he chose to preserve. The first public showing came in 1899 at the Paris Salon, where he set the statue directly on the floor without a pedestal, which critics called bold.
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