Fallen Caryatid Carrying Her Stone

The Gates of Hell became a major source of the wealth of individual sculptures that Rodin created during the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. The portal itself occupied the sculptor for more than a decade. It was still unfinished on the stipulated date of delivery in 1885, and in fact it was never cast in bronze during Rodin's lifetime. Owing to the great size and continuous, unbroken composition of The Gates, the clay models for individual figures and sections of the relief could not be prevented from drying out and crumbling. Rodin removed them from the framework of the portal and preserved them in the more permanent form of plaster. In the process, many were finished in the round, enlarged, cast in bronze or carved in marble, and presented as individual works of art.

The Fallen Caryatid first appeared as a small, crouching woman at the top of the left pilaster of The Gates. About 1881 Rodin enlarged the figure and added a stone.