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Lot Essay
Rodin's choice of Eve as a theme for a life-size sculpture reflects the great popularity of the subject in the Salon after the 1850s. It was the half-size reduction which was first exhibited publicly (at the Salon of 1883 and at the Egyptian Hall in London in the same year). By 1887 marble reductions were in at least two Paris private collections, while the life-size version was not exhibited until 1899.
Conceived initially as part of an Adam and Eve group to flank the Gates of Hell, Rodin's sculpture of Eve is one of the great turning points in modern sculpture. The statue exemplifies Rodin's mastery as a narrative artist. Eve, turning in on herself as if to protect a newly vunerable body, is a psychological profile of sin and the fall from grace. The intensely wrought emotion of Eve is expressed in her every muscle and sinew: in the tight fold of her arms shielding her naked flesh, in the tension of her neck, and in the locking together of her thighs. A contradictory image of voluptuousness and shame, Eve appears frozen in her attitude of corporeal renunciation and profound remorse.
The theme of Eve after the Fall had great appeal in the nineteenth century. A staple of academic and religious painting, the subject was given new life by Gauguin and the Symbolists in the late 1880s and 1890s. Indeed Rodin's ingenious interpretation of the figure, with its sense of extreme withdrawal and self-abnegation, looks forward to later developments in French art of the twentieth century, from the brooding beggars of Picasso's Blue Period to the sculpture of Henri Matisse (fig. 1) and Constantin Brancusi, who appear to have reinterpreted the striking gesture of Eve's folded arms in their early works.
The model for Eve was Mme Abruzzezzi, who had also posed for Cybele of 1889 and Ariadne, before 1889. Rodin was particularly impressed by her, describing her in the following words to Dujardin-Beaumetz: "The dark one had sunburned skin, warm, with the bronze reflections of the women of sunny lands; her movements were quick and feline, with the lissomeness and grace of a panther; all the strength and splendour of muscular beauty, and that perfect equilibrium, that simplicity of bearing which makes great gesture. At that time I was working on my statue Eve" (quoted in J.L. Tancock, op. cit., p. 148).
The base may well have been conceived by the Japanese artist "Yushio" (a pseudonym for Kishizo), who worked for Rodin after 1900, and in particular up to 1910. From the 1880s, Rodin saw the base as being part of the sculpture, a concept that broke away from the traditional display of sculpture on a high pedestal, the whole forming a triangular shape. This concept opened the way for twentieth century sculptors, such as Brancusi (fig. 2), whose carved bases would form an extension of the sculpture.
(fig. 1) Henri Matisse, Madeleine I, conceived in 1901.
(fig. 2) Constantin Brancusi, Yellow Bird, 1919, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.
Conceived initially as part of an Adam and Eve group to flank the Gates of Hell, Rodin's sculpture of Eve is one of the great turning points in modern sculpture. The statue exemplifies Rodin's mastery as a narrative artist. Eve, turning in on herself as if to protect a newly vunerable body, is a psychological profile of sin and the fall from grace. The intensely wrought emotion of Eve is expressed in her every muscle and sinew: in the tight fold of her arms shielding her naked flesh, in the tension of her neck, and in the locking together of her thighs. A contradictory image of voluptuousness and shame, Eve appears frozen in her attitude of corporeal renunciation and profound remorse.
The theme of Eve after the Fall had great appeal in the nineteenth century. A staple of academic and religious painting, the subject was given new life by Gauguin and the Symbolists in the late 1880s and 1890s. Indeed Rodin's ingenious interpretation of the figure, with its sense of extreme withdrawal and self-abnegation, looks forward to later developments in French art of the twentieth century, from the brooding beggars of Picasso's Blue Period to the sculpture of Henri Matisse (fig. 1) and Constantin Brancusi, who appear to have reinterpreted the striking gesture of Eve's folded arms in their early works.
The model for Eve was Mme Abruzzezzi, who had also posed for Cybele of 1889 and Ariadne, before 1889. Rodin was particularly impressed by her, describing her in the following words to Dujardin-Beaumetz: "The dark one had sunburned skin, warm, with the bronze reflections of the women of sunny lands; her movements were quick and feline, with the lissomeness and grace of a panther; all the strength and splendour of muscular beauty, and that perfect equilibrium, that simplicity of bearing which makes great gesture. At that time I was working on my statue Eve" (quoted in J.L. Tancock, op. cit., p. 148).
The base may well have been conceived by the Japanese artist "Yushio" (a pseudonym for Kishizo), who worked for Rodin after 1900, and in particular up to 1910. From the 1880s, Rodin saw the base as being part of the sculpture, a concept that broke away from the traditional display of sculpture on a high pedestal, the whole forming a triangular shape. This concept opened the way for twentieth century sculptors, such as Brancusi (fig. 2), whose carved bases would form an extension of the sculpture.
(fig. 1) Henri Matisse, Madeleine I, conceived in 1901.
(fig. 2) Constantin Brancusi, Yellow Bird, 1919, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.