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The Three Shades

The Three Shades is a bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, dated by researcher Georges Grapp to 1880. It appears at the top of The Gates of Hell and is linked to The Thinker through its three repeated silhouettes. The figures have little muscular detail, unnatural positions, and deliberately incomplete forms. Their right hand was added at Rodin’s request in 1904 by Josef Mařatk, giving the group a central axis and helping create a monumental effect based on Dante’s Divine Comedy. The work was not originally part of The Gates of Hell, though Rodin later decided to unite it with the ensemble. It emphasizes movement, balance, and the modeling of emptiness rather than solid form.

The Three Shades by Rodin, showing three dark bronze nude figures grouped together with bowed heads.
The Three Shades, a bronze sculpture by Rodin, depicted with the three intertwined figures.
June 2016 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Three Shades by Auguste Rodin, a dark bronze sculpture of three intertwined male figures with bowed heads outdoors near greenery.
The Three Shades stands outdoors amid gravel, hedges, and trees at the Rodin Museum.
October 2015 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Three Shades sculpture by Auguste Rodin, showing three nude male figures with bowed heads standing closely together.
Auguste Rodin’s The Three Shades shown as three closely grouped nude figures with lowered heads.
© Unknown authorUnknown author · Public domain
The Three Shades bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, showing a bowed figure on a rocky base.
The Three Shades by Auguste Rodin, shown in dark bronze on a pedestal.
June 2024 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
The Three Shades bronze sculpture shown in a museum gallery with a bowed male figure in the foreground.
The Three Shades by Auguste Rodin displayed in a museum gallery.
January 2017 © · CC BY-SA 4.0

Identification

TitleThe Three Shades
Title in SpanishLas tres sombras
Typesculptural group
Original titleLes Trois Ombres

Creator

ArtistAuguste Rodin
Nationality of artistFrench
SculptorAuguste Rodin

Historical context

Autograph plaster copy date1917
Use of repetition in Rodin's workRodin also used repeated figures in The Three Fauns and The Secret
Relation to Dante's inscriptionThe shades' posture and position were intended as an allegory of the phrase "abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
Relation to The ThinkerThe figures point toward The Thinker, originally conceived as Minos of Crete and later as Dante Alighieri
StudiesRodin made several individual studies before deciding to combine the figures
Second version of AdamCreated after the first was destroyed and exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1881
First figure of AdamDestroyed by Rodin
Source of dissatisfactionRodin was dissatisfied with the first figure of Adam because of its closeness to Michelangelo's style
Shared model in The SecretThe same hand model is used
Independent monumental versionCreated in 1901 as an autonomous group by Henri Lebossé
Date of decision to unite with The Gates of HellBetween 1881 and 1886
Placement within The Gates of HellAt the top of the entablature
Part ofThe Gates of Hell
Related workThe Gates of Hell (La Porte de l'Enfer)
Literary inspirationDante's Divine Comedy
Date of creationBefore 1886
Original placement statusNot originally on The Gates of Hell; Rodin later decided to unite it with the work
Date1886
Conceived1885

Materials

Cast in bronzeLater cast in bronze in several editions
Other materialPlaster
MaterialBronze

Discovery and provenance

Autograph plaster copy locationMusée d'arts de Nantes

Location and ownership

Current autograph plaster copy locationMusée d'arts de Nantes
Bronze cast locationsMusée Rodin, Paris; Cantor Sculpture Garden, Stanford University; California Palace of the Legion of Honor; Rodin Museum, Philadelphia; Museo Soumaya, Mexico; Dixon Gallery and Gardens, Memphis, Tennessee

Physical characteristics

Functional role in compositionGiven a central axis to the whole sculptural ensemble
Conceptual aimRodin sought to materialize what has no body, modeling emptiness
Movement styleViolent movements that do not exceed the body contour
Style / appearanceRepeated similar silhouettes with little muscle detail and deliberately incomplete forms
Right hand statusThe right hand is absent in each figure
Number of figuresThree
Figure typeIdentical figures
Arrangement of figuresThe bodies point toward the center of the gate and toward The Thinker
PlacementAbove the Gates of Hell, looking down at the viewer
Head angleThe heads hang at an extremely exaggerated angle
Anatomical deformationThe neck and shoulders form an almost horizontal line
CompositionThree identical figures gathered around a central point; they seem to rotate around the same point
Right hand additionA right hand was added at Rodin's request in 1904 by Josef Mařatka

Appearance

EmphasisMovement and the sway of the bodies

Iconography and meaning

Possible originAccording to Judith Cladel, it comes from the first study of Adam, or The Creation of Man
Source of the shadow motifDerived from the first study of Adam
Interpretation of the missing right handThe condemned's impotence before fate or tragic destiny
Dante-related inscriptionRodin chose not to engrave Dante's epigraph on the gates and instead expressed it through the shades' gestures and postures
Associated inscription"abandon all hope, ye who enter here"
Depicted subjectThe souls of the damned at the entrance to Hell
Relationship to another workA repetition of La sombra