Eve

This large-scale figure was created to be paired with Adam on the sides of The Gates of Hell around 1881, but for economic reasons this plan was never realized. Rodin based the work on a model whose beautiful body had "the sinuous beauty of a panther" but when the model became pregnant, he abandoned the project in an unfinished state. The marble sculpture of Eve in reduced scale was created after he abandoned, but this lifesized figure was not displayed until its entrance in the 1899 Salon. From 1901 through 1907 Bourdelle sculpted Eve in marble based on Rodin's plaster model as a praticien for Rodin. This museum's statue of Eve is thought to have been cast from the marble sculpture. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 132)