Eternel printemps; second état, troisième réduction

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Eternel printemps; second état, troisième réduction
signed 'Rodin' (on the right side of the base); inscribed with the foundry mark 'F.Barbedienne Fondeur' (on the lower left side of the base)
bronze with green patina
Height: 15¾ in. (40 cm.)
Conceived in 1884; this version cast between 1898 and 1918 in an edition of 83 proofs

Provenance

Anon. sale, Palais Galliéra, Paris, 13 June 1974.
Acquired at the above sale by the present owner.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 42, nos. 69-70 (other versions illustrated).
G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, p. 141, no. 56 (large marble version illustrated p. 56).
B. Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, p. 280, nos. 34-35 (large versions illustrated pp. 92-93).
R. Descharnes & J.F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 135 (large bronze version illustrated pp. 56-57).
I. Jianou & C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 96 (another cast illustrated pp. 56-57).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 241-245, no. 32b (another cast illustrated p. 243).

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The commission for La Porte de l'enfer gave Rodin the opportunity to experiment extensively with figure compositions, both singly and in groups, which he could model on a smaller scale than his earlier sculptures, and further refine his intensity of expression. A common theme among these sculptures is human love, expressed not in the tired allegorical conventions of the period, but in more novel, passionate and intimately human terms.

Rodin developed the figures in L'Eternel printemps from earlier motifs. The figure of the woman is derived from Torse d'Adèle, which appears on the left corner of the tympanum of La Porte de l'enfer. The lovers were originally known as Zéphyr et la terre and were exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1898 as Cupidon et Psyché (there are vestiges of small Cupid's wings on the back of the man).

More from Impressionist and Modern Art Day Sale

View All