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Property from the JULES MASTBAUM FAMILY COLLECTION

Property from the

Details

Property from the
JULES MASTBAUM FAMILY COLLECTION

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

La méditation

signed on the top of the base 'A. Rodin', numbered and inscribed with foundry mark on the back of the base '1ere Epreuve 1890 ALEXIS.RUDIER. FONDEUR. PARIS.'--with raised signature inside 'A. Rodin' and marked 'M'--bronze with black and brown patina
Height: 29 3/8in. (74.6cm.)

Original version executed in 1885; this bronze version cast in 1924

Provenance

Musée Rodin, Paris (acquired by Jules Mastbaum, 1924)

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, no. 85 (another cast illustrated, p. 45)
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967,
p. 77 (another cast illustrated)
J. L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 193-196, no. 19 (another cast illustrated, p. 195)

Lot Essay

La méditation is derived from the female figure seen standing in the crowd of the judged at the far right of the tympanum of The Gates of Hell. Rodin enlarged the figure, and modified the position of the arms and head. He used this subject again, retitled The Inner Voice, in 1889 for a monument to Victor Hugo which was erected in the Panthéon, Paris.