Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Property from the Collection of ALICE TULLY

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Le secret

signed and inscribed on the back 'A.Rodin Alexis.Rudier.Fondeur.Paris.' --bronze with dark brown and green patina
Height: 4¾in. (12.1cm.)

Original plaster version executed circa 1910; this bronze version cast at a later date

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, no. 415 (cf. illustration of related large plaster version)
A. E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 139 (cf. illustration of related large version)
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 94
J. L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, no. 126 (cf. illustration of related large version, p. 634)
ed. Musée Rodin, Rodin, les mains, les chirurgiens, Paris, 1983, p. 109, nos. 76 and 77 (marble and plaster versions illustrated)

Lot Essay

The large version of The Secret, 1910, incorporates a rectangular, book-like shape between the hands, and it may have been exhibited in London in 1910 as Hands Holding the Sacred Tablets. Rodin may have taken the image from a Renaissance book of emblems. The pairing of hands recalls The Cathedral of 1908, which was inspired by Rodin's love of Gothic architecture.