Little Brother and Sister (1916): Art, History and Details

Little Brother and Sister (1916) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Rodin spent years exploring new ways of representing the human emotions of love and affection experienced at different stages of life. The bodies and gestures of the children here suggest an innocent foreshadowing of the mature couple in the artist’s celebrated sculpture The Kiss of 1882. Both works feature a strong tactile contrast between the rough-hewn lower area and the smooth surfaces of the nude body above. Upwardly spiraling forms, combined with shifting areas of light and shadow, infuse the sculpture with dynamic energy.

Object facts

• Title: Little Brother and Sister
• Date: 1916
• Creator attribution: Auguste Rodin (French, 1840–1917)
• Culture: France, early 20th Century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: marble
• Dimensions: Overall: 56.6 cm (22 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Mod Euro - Sculpture 1800-1960
• Department: Modern European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1917.745

Collection credit

Gift of Salmon P. Halle

Further reading listed by the museum

• "Modern Sculpture at the Museum." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 6 (1917): 108-09.
• "Accessions." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 7 (1917): 135-37.
• "Rodin Memorial Exhibition." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 9 (1917): 162-63.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.