Eternal Idol (1889)

(Idole Eternelle)

This statue takes its place with The Kiss and Eternal Springtime as the best known of the amorous statues fashioned by Rodin. The three more popular statues came from the period when his life was associated with that of Camille Claudel. The coincidence probably brought about the transformation in style. Rodin once said, "All that I have lived and loved I have made in my art." His affair with the sculptress Camille Claludel was certainly both physical and spiritual. Do these statues represent his discovery of those dual aspects of love? Rilke, biographer and one time secretary to the sculptor, wrote, "A girl on her knees, bends her beautiful body backward. One does not dare to give it a meaning. It has a thousand meanings."
"The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act."  Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)