Young Mother

Young Mother by Auguste Rodin is a sculpture that was carved from bronze. This sculpture was made in 1885 by this artist and it was 15 3/8 in. (39 cm) high. 1885 is the year which Rodin conceived this sculpture, but it was cast between the years of 1887 to 1901.

The artist was hugely inspired by the whole idea of maternal love. It is from this that he developed a group of small sculptures with this theme. The first among these sculptures is was The Young Mother in the Grotto, which Auguste cast in great relief. It was initially conceived to decorate The Gates of Hell, on its left pillar. Here it most likely represented Amor and Venus. The first edit on Young Mother is currently located in Museo Soumaya. There are other versions of this sculpture made in marble situated in the National Gallery of Scotland, there's also a version in plaster situated in the Academy of the Legion of honour, San Francisco.

The sculpture depicts a young woman with a child resting her knees. This woman is seated on what looks like a rock. Young Mother is a probable forerunner of a similarly themed sculpture - Young Mother in the Grotto. Young Mother is certainly Rodin's most pleasing sculptures. This is because it can stand freely, on its own. Rodin expressed the relationship between the Young Mother and her child with expertise. In this sculpture, the child is reaching out to its mother touching her hair while staring at her.

Maternal love as a subject matter is a theme that compares Rodin to Jean Baptiste Carpeaux and Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. These artists also modelled a number of sculptures showing mothers with their children. Rodin's work in indebted to his masters of Romanticism of 19th century. In 1888, Young Mother in Grotto was reconfigured by Rodin. it was replaced by The Fallen Caryatid with a Stone. This was after Young Mother and her love were deemed unsuitable for Dante's Inferno. Other casts of Rodin’s model were made by some foundries like Gruet Fils, Perzinka, Griffoul et Lorge, Alexis Rudier and François Rudier. They were eighteen casts in number. Alexis Rudier made eight casts and were the first to be made. This was done in between the years of 1927 and 1945, they were followed by six casts from Georges Rudier foundry at around 1955 and 1963. Other fourteen casts were made by Musée Rodin.