It is not known when and how Rodin got the idea of grouping together three identical figures. It may have been either a new application or a consequence of his method of working through contours, a single glance being sufficient to apprehend the figure from the front, three-quarters right and three-quarters left, at the same time. Whatever the reason, it was a very original idea which he continued to apply to many other works, but at this particular stage in his career, it reflected his extraordinary audacity. The emphatic vertical line of the arms leads the eye not to the inscription which gave meaning to the composition, Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch'entrate (Abandon all hope, you who enter here), since the hands which held it were cut off, but towards The Thinker. The Shades were exhibited for the first time at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1889, probably as separate statues. In 1890, they were included in the Rodin exhibition under the title The Vanquished. The following year, Rodin confided to Henri Lebossé the task of enlarging the figure. The enlargement was completed at the end of the year, and at the Salon of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1902 the three plasters were displayed at a height and in the open air. They were not cast together they were simply all place close together on one low pedestal.
