Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Daphnis et Lycenion

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Daphnis et Lycenion
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the base)
bronze with dark brown patina
Length: 19¾ in. (50 cm.)
Conceived circa 1885; this bronze version cast between 1886 and 1903

Provenance

Georges Bernheim, Paris.
M. Charbonnier, Lyons (acquired from the above, January 1925).
By descent from the above to the previous owner.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 55, no. 124 (another cast illustrated).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 100.
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 261, no. 36-5 (another cast illustrated).
A. Beausire, Quand Rodin exposait, Paris, 1988, pp. 152 and 182, no. 39.

Lot Essay

The subject of the present work was taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses and it represents the embracing lovers Daphnis and Lycenion. There are only three casts known of this subject, all of which were executed during the artist's lifetime. One of these is located in the Musée Rodin, Paris and the other is in a private collection. The sculpture is part of a series that portrayed intertwining female lovers that followed from Rodin's Damned Women of 1885. John Tancock notes that "The models for this group...were in fact two lesbian dancers from the Opéra who had been recommended to Rodin by Degas" (op. cit, p. 257) and they were also used in The Metamorphoses of Ovid (Tancock, fig. 36-1) and Cupid and Psyche (Tancock, fig. 36-2).

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