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Young Mother in the Grotto

Young Mother in the Grotto, also known as Woman and Love, is a plaster sculpture by Auguste Rodin made around 1885. It was first exhibited at the Salon of Paris in 1885. Rodin had explored the subject earlier, beginning in the 1860s while working for the Sèvres Manufacture, where he was allowed to experiment with the work. The piece reflects Rodin’s interest in maternal love, similar to The Eternal Spring, and it also appears at the lower left of The Gates of Hell. Rodin later created autograph versions in ivory and bronze, modeled after his wife Rose Beuret and their child Auguste-Eugène. The sculpture contrasts rough rock with the softness of the figures’ skin, suggesting a tension between life and death.

Young Mother in the Grotto by Auguste Rodin, a bronze sculpture of a crouching nude woman with a small child beside her.
Auguste Rodin’s Young Mother in the Grotto, showing a crouching mother and child in bronze.
© · Public domain
Young Mother in the Grotto, a dark bronze sculpture of a crouching woman cradling a child inside a textured grotto-like form.
Young Mother in the Grotto shown as a dark bronze sculpture on a wooden base.
June 2016 © · CC BY-SA 4.0
Young Mother in the Grotto, a white marble sculpture of a woman and child nestled inside a rough cave-like form.
Young Mother in the Grotto by Auguste Rodin, shown as a white marble sculpture with a mother and child enclosed in a grotto-like setting.
August 2016 © · Public domain
Young Mother in the Grotto, a white marble sculpture of a crouching mother embracing a child within a rough grotto-like form.
Young Mother in the Grotto by Auguste Rodin, showing a mother and child carved in white marble within a rugged grotto-like setting.
© · CC0
Young Mother in the Grotto relief showing a crouching adult embracing a child.
Young Mother in the Grotto, a relief sculpture of an adult figure holding a child, photographed behind glass.
January 2024 © 14GTR · CC0

Identification

TitleYoung Mother in the Grotto
Alternative titleWoman and Love
Title in FrenchJeune mère dans la grotte
Title in SpanishJoven madre en la gruta
TypeSculpture

Creator

Model for autograph versionsRose Beuret and their child Auguste-Eugène
Artist nationalityFrench
ArtistAuguste Rodin

Historical context

First versionsMade in the 1860s while Rodin was working for the Sèvres Manufacture
First exhibitionParis Salon, 1885
Exhibited under titleWoman and Love
Final version date1885
Date conceivedcirca 1885

Discovery and provenance

Made forRodin's work for the French porcelain factory Porcelaine de Sèvres

Materials

Autograph versions materialsIvory and bronze
MaterialPlaster

Physical characteristics

SubjectWoman and child

Iconography and meaning

ThemeMaternal love
InterpretationThe contrast evokes a relationship between life and death
Other themesMythological themes

Appearance

Compositional contrastSoft human figures contrasted with the rough grotto or rock
Original display featureThe two groups originally had a roof that plunged them into deeper shadow

Technique

Artistic influenceMichelangelo

Location and ownership

Appears in another workLower left of The Gates of Hell

Related works

Related workThe Eternal Springtime
Influence on later workStrongly influenced John Tweed's Mother and Child (1894)
Related artistJohn Tweed
Relationship to artistVery close to Rodin; they shared studios to house their respective families and were important to each other's artistic creation