The Gates of Hell

Auguste Rodin worked on this massive bronze portal for 37 years, never seeing it cast in his lifetime. Inspired by Dante's Inferno, the doors swarm with over 200 tortured figures writhing in damnation. The Thinker sits at the top, surveying the suffering below.

Commissioned as a doorway for a planned museum of decorative arts that was never built, the Gates became a laboratory for Rodin's ideas. Many standalone sculptures, including The Thinker, The Kiss, and The Three Shades, originated here. The chaotic composition captures human passion and despair in every contorted form.

Bronze casts exist at the Musée Rodin in Paris, the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia, and several other locations.