Property Sold by Order of the Trustees of the

Details

Property Sold by Order of the Trustees of the
HIRSHHORN MUSEUM AND SCULPTURE GARDEN
to benefit its Acquisition Program

Emile-Antoine Bourdelle (1861-1929)

Rodin penché en arriere

signed on the front 'EMILE ANTOINE BOURDELLE', signed with cipher, numbered and inscribed with foundry mark on the back '3 E.GODARD Fdr Paris © BY BOURDELLE'--bronze with green and brown patina
Height: 25 1/4in. (64cm.)

Original version executed in 1909; this bronze cast at a later date, number three in an edition of 10

Provenance

Estate of the artist Charles E. Slatkin Galleries, New York (1967) Joseph H. Hirshhorn, New York and Washington, D.C. (1967-1981) Estate of Joseph H. Hirshhorn, Washington, D.C. (1981-1986)

Literature

P. Descargues, Bourdelle, Paris, 1954, p. 34 (another cast illustrated)
I. Jianou and M. Dufet, Emile-Antoine Bourdelle, Paris, 1965, p. 90 I. Jianou and M. Dufet, Bourdelle, Paris, 1975, no. 377 (another cast illustrated, p. 103)

Further details

*This lot may be exempt from sales tax, as set forth in the Sales Tax Notice at the front of the catalogue.

Lot Essay

In 1893, Bourdelle, then thirty-two years old, became an assistant to Rodin, a relationship which lasted until 1906. The impact of Rodin's work drew the younger sculptor away from academic tendencies and toward a more expressive and monumental conception of sculpture. By the turn of the century, however, Bourdelle developed his own classical and archaic sources of inspiration. Nevertheless, the two sculptors retained profound respect for each other, and in 1909 Bourdelle executed a series of sculptures dedicated to the older man. In the present work Bourdelle depicts Rodin as a massive, almost super-human creator.