Nasher Sculpture Center

Upon viewing a plaster cast of Maillol's Night at the 1909 Salon d'Automne in Paris, fellow sculptor Auguste Rodin remarked that "one forgets too often that the human body is an architecture - a living architecture." Compared to the expressively varied surfaces of Rodin's Eve, also on display in the garden, Maillol's smoothly modeled figure emphasizes the geometric structure and volumetric forms of the female body. The stability of the composition recalls Egyptian sculpture, which Maillol greatly admired. Folding in on itself, head in arms, the sculpture is a timeless symbol of repose, introspection, and psychological calm. The figure also invokes Symbolist themes of the fecund powers of womanhood, and of sleep as a creative, transformative state.