Conceived in 1884 there are only five bronze casts of this work in this scale. The Musée Rodin commissioned two bronze casts of this sculpture from the Alexis Rudier foundry between 1930 and 1952 and then just three further casts by the Georges Rudier foundry between 1966 and 1969.

The model, known as Éternel Printemps, Premier État (Eternal Spring, First State), corresponds to Rodin’s earliest conception of the sculpture and is for most connoisseurs the finest version of the work. Ferdinand Barbedienne, the owner of the largest art bronze foundry in France, saw this work and the sculpture of The Kiss and approached Rodin to cast the works. Eventually Rodin sold the complete rights to cast both sculptures to Barbedienne and negotiated that a commission be paid to him each time the founder produced a cast.

The model of Eternal Spring proved to be a difficult one for the founder as the protruding arm and leg made the work liable to easy damage as well as being challenging to cast. So, with Rodin the foundry created an addition of a rocky structure below the man’s left arm and leg.

Along with Le Basier (The Kiss), the present work was originally conceived to represent the tragic love story of Paolo and Francesca, as told in Dante’s Inferno. Given the predominance of the front view of the work, it is possible the model was first intended to adorn The Gates of Hell. An image taken by Johann Carl Bodmer in 1886 shows an early sketch for the work displayed in front of the frame for the Gates, perhaps lending weight to this hypothesis.

Another theory, based on the work’s date of conception (1884), relates to the romantic relationship between Rodin and Camille Claudel, which was blossoming around that period. It has thus been suggested that the images of tenderly embracing lovers carried some autobiographical significance for the sculptor. Whether originating as a group for The Gates of Hell or as a sculptural celebration of love, Rodin himself referenced Beethoven as an important influence, stating that ‘it was whilst listening to it [Beethoven’s Symphony No.2] for the first time that I pictured Eternal Spring, just as I have modelled it since’.

The woman’s torso, an important aspect in expressing the passion in this work, is in fact taken from Rodin’s earlier work Torse d’Adèle (Torso of Adele), which the artist sculpted between 1868 and 1872 and was based on Rodin’s favourite model, Adèle Abbruzzesi. Eternal Spring went on to become an icon of romantic love and one of Rodin’s most well- known and certainly most commercially successful models.