Les sirènes

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Les sirènes
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the side), stamped with the foundry mark 'Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris' and 'c by Musée Rodin 1960' (on the side of the base), with the raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the inside)
bronze with a dark green patina
8 5/8 in. (22 cm.) high
Conceived circa 1888 and cast by the Musée Rodin in 1960

Provenance

Edgardo Acosta Gallery, Beverly Hills, from whom acquired by the late owner in 1961.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, nos. 186-187 (plaster version illustrated).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 92 (marble version illustrated, p. 27).
J. L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 215-219, no. 24 (other casts illustrated, pp. 217-218, nos. 24b and 24-I).
A. T. Spear, Rodin Sculpture, Cleveland, 1967, pp. 61 and 69, no. XIII (another cast illustrated, pp. 60-61).

Exhibited

Beverly Hills, Edgardo Acosta Gallery, Rodin. Twenty-five bronzes, March, 1961, no.15 (illustrated).
Arizona, The University of Arizona Museum of Art, The George Gregson Collection, Jan-March 1969 (illustrated p. 100).

Lot Essay

This group, also known as Les néréides, can be seen halfway up on the left side of the left panel of he Gates of Hell. Rodin returned to this group on a number of occasions. Mounted at a different angle, they cover the dying poet in the work known as La Mort du Poète. Rodin also proposed using them in the definitive project for the second monument to Victor Hugo. Considerably enlarged, they represent the voices of the sea to which the poet is listening.

This work is recorded in the Musée Rodin's archives under number 1140 and is sold with a certificate from Cécile Goldscheider, then director of the Musée Rodin, dated le 17 novembre 1960.

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