The passionate love of Francesca da Rimini and Paolo Malatesta was a theme which Rodin used to inspire The Kiss.
Although it was originally intended to be part of the Gates of Hell, Rodin did not feel that it fit and removed the figures to make them an individual statue.
The embracing couple depicted in the sculpture appeared originally as part of a group of reliefs decorating Rodin's bronze portal The Gates of Hell, commissioned for a planned museum of art in Paris.
The couple were later removed from the Gates and replaced with another pair of lovers. Rodin described his sculpture as follows, “complete in itself and artificially set apart from the surrounding world.”
