The Shade [single figure from The Three Shades]

Overall view from rear; Rodin took advantage of the opportunities that multiplication afforded within a work, using the same figure in different positions: the male figures in The Three Shades (before 1886) were borrowed from Adam (1880-1881, itself inspired by the pose of Michelangelo’s Slaves). The three identical figures, grouped around a central point, initially placed at the top of The Gates of Hell, were enlarged in 1904 to create a monumental independent group. Profiting from the machine invented by Achille Collas in 1830, based on a pantograph system, Rodin employed skilled assistants, notably Henri Lebossé from 1894, for making enlargements or reductions of his models. This is a single figure of the left most figure from The Three Shades, enlarged and cast in bronze. It stands in the museum gardens. Source: Musée Rodin [website]; http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/ (accessed 6/18/2015