The Kiss (1889) is Auguste Rodin's marble sculpture of two nude lovers locked in an embrace, originally conceived for his Gates of Hell. It's not in the AP Art History 250 required works, but Rodin is a required artist, so it can appear as an unknown work in attribution questions.
The Kiss is a marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1889) showing two nude figures mid-embrace, bodies twisting toward each other in a moment of pure passion. The figures started life as Paolo and Francesca, the doomed lovers from Dante's Inferno, designed for Rodin's massive Gates of Hell project. Rodin eventually pulled them out and let the pair stand on their own, and the sculpture became one of the most famous images of love in Western art.
What makes it Rodin and not, say, a Neoclassical sculptor? Look at the contrast between the smoothly polished bodies and the rough, unfinished marble block they sit on. Rodin leaves the chisel work visible, reminding you the figures are emerging from raw stone. That tension between idealized flesh and raw material, plus the focus on emotion and physical sensation over mythological storytelling, is Rodin's signature. He's bridging academic sculpture and modern sculpture, and The Kiss shows exactly how.
The Kiss sits in Unit 4 territory (Later Europe and Americas, 1750-1980 CE), the unit where art shifts from Neoclassical restraint to modern experimentation. Here's the thing you need to know first: The Kiss is not one of the 250 required works. Rodin's required work is The Burghers of Calais. So why learn it? Because Rodin is a required artist, and the AP exam's attribution question deliberately shows you a work that is NOT in the 250 and asks you to attribute it to an artist in the curriculum using visual evidence. The Kiss is a textbook candidate for that move. It also gives you a strong example for essays about how artists convey emotion through the human body, a theme that runs from Hellenistic Greece through Rodin to modern abstraction.
Keep studying AP Art History Unit 4
The Burghers of Calais (Unit 4)
This is Rodin's actual required work in the 250. Both sculptures share his fingerprints, expressive body language, rough textured surfaces, and real human emotion instead of idealized heroes. Knowing Burghers well lets you attribute The Kiss to Rodin on sight.
Neoclassicism (Unit 4)
Neoclassical sculpture is cool, smooth, and emotionally restrained. Rodin keeps the polished marble bodies but ditches the restraint, leaving raw stone visible and letting passion drive the composition. The Kiss is basically Neoclassical technique with the emotional volume turned all the way up.
Jean-Honoré Fragonard (Unit 4)
Fragonard's Rococo paintings like The Swing made flirtation and desire a legitimate artistic subject a century before Rodin. Pairing the two gives you a ready-made continuity-and-change argument about how European art depicts love, from playful aristocratic suggestion to frank physical embrace.
Cubism and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Unit 4)
Rodin pushed sculpture toward modernism, and artists like Picasso pushed right past him within two decades. Comparing The Kiss (1889) with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) shows how fast 'modern' moved from emotional realism to fractured abstraction.
Since The Kiss isn't in the 250, you won't see a required-image question about it. Where it earns its keep is the attribution short essay, which shows you an unfamiliar work and asks you to attribute it to an artist or culture from the curriculum and justify your answer with specific visual evidence. If The Kiss (or another non-250 Rodin) appears, your job is to name Rodin and point to the evidence: expressive, intertwined figures; emphasis on raw emotion and the body; the contrast between polished flesh and rough unfinished marble, all echoing The Burghers of Calais. It's also useful MCQ ammunition for stems about the transition from academic to modern sculpture in the late 19th century. No released FRQ has named The Kiss verbatim, but it fits the attribution format the exam uses every year.
Same title, totally different work. Rodin's The Kiss (1889) is a marble sculpture of two nude lovers, rooted in Dante and French academic sculpture. Klimt's The Kiss (1907-08) is a gold-leaf painting from Vienna's Art Nouveau movement, flat, decorative, and pattern-heavy. If a question shows three-dimensional marble with visible chisel marks, you're looking at Rodin. If it's shimmering gold patterns swallowing two figures, that's Klimt.
The Kiss is an 1889 marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin showing two lovers embracing, originally designed as Paolo and Francesca for his Gates of Hell.
It is not one of the AP Art History 250 required works, but Rodin is a required artist through The Burghers of Calais, so The Kiss can show up in attribution questions.
Rodin's signature move is contrast, with smoothly polished bodies emerging from a rough, visibly chiseled marble base, which signals his break from Neoclassical perfection.
The sculpture prioritizes raw human emotion and physical sensation over mythological narrative, marking the bridge between academic and modern sculpture.
Don't confuse it with Klimt's gold-leaf painting of the same name; Rodin's is a marble sculpture, Klimt's is a flat decorative Vienna Secession painting.
The Kiss is an 1889 marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin depicting two nude lovers in a passionate embrace. The figures were originally Paolo and Francesca from Dante's Inferno, designed for Rodin's Gates of Hell before he made them a standalone work.
No. The Kiss is not in the required image set. Rodin's required work is The Burghers of Calais, but since Rodin is a required artist, The Kiss can appear as an unknown work in the exam's attribution question.
Rodin's The Kiss (1889) is a three-dimensional marble sculpture from France with naturalistic bodies and rough-hewn stone. Klimt's The Kiss (1907-08) is a flat, gold-leaf Art Nouveau painting from Vienna. Different medium, country, movement, and decade.
Point to the visual evidence: emotionally charged, intertwined figures; naturalistic anatomy; and polished flesh emerging from a rough, unfinished marble base. Then connect those traits to The Burghers of Calais, his work in the 250, which shares the same expressive body language and textured surfaces.
No. It began as part of The Gates of Hell, Rodin's monumental doorway based on Dante's Inferno. Rodin removed the lovers because their happiness clashed with the doorway's tormented mood, and the standalone marble version followed in 1889.