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Lot Essay
Auguste Rodin’s Eve is a powerful study of the expressive potential of the body, her dramatically twisting form filled with tension, anguish and guilt. Portrayed in the moment she is banished form the Garden of Eden, every muscle and sinew in her body is marked by intensely wrought emotion, from the tight folding of her arms as they wrap around her torso, to the way she bends her neck and drops her head, burying her face in the crook of her elbow in an attempt to hide. As the Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who served as Rodin’s secretary in 1905-1906, noted, ‘[Eve] seems to be enfolded in her arms, with hands turned outwards as if to push away everything, even her own changing body’ (quoted in A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. 1, p. 345). Commissioned directly from Rodin and cast by François Rudier under the artist’s direction in the autumn of 1900, the present bronze is a testament to the boldly modern style of sculpture that Rodin was renowned for, showcasing his virtuosic ability in marrying narrative with profound human emotions.
Rodin began work on Eve in the early 1880s, shortly after receiving a much-coveted commission from the French government for La porte de l’enfer, a monumental gateway representing Dante’s Inferno. His initial version of Eve was a life-sized marble, and early sketches for the gates show that he considered placing the statue either between the two doors, like the trumeau of a Gothic portal, or on top of them. By October 1881, however, he had come to view Eve as a pendant to the sculpture now known as Adam, which had been exhibited at the Salon that spring under the title La Création. Both figures appear lost in the moment the consequences of their actions dawn upon them: Adam’s body is twisted in anguish, his right hand held away from his body, while Eve recoils, her arms raised as she hides herself in shame. The artist intended to stage the two figures on either side of La porte de l’enfer, positioning them as symbolic gatekeepers of man’s perdition. However, the monumental Eve was left unfinished and not included in the final composition for La porte de l’enfer; instead, the piece became a work in its own right, finding great success through a series of variations in both bronze and marble.
Eve’s dynamic, theatrical gesture invokes not only the art of Ancient Greece, in particular the Venus Pudica type in classical sculpture, but also depictions of the subject from the Italian Renaissance, such as Masaccio’s Expulsion from Paradise in the Brancacci Chapel and Michelangelo’s version of the same scene on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A self-taught sculptor, Rodin had discovered the power of Michelangelo in 1876, recalling: ‘When I myself went to Italy, my brain full of Greek models that I had passionately studied at the Louvre, I was greatly disconcerted by the Michelangelos. They were always refuting the truths I thought I’d permanently learnt!’ (quoted in R. Masson and V. Mattiussi, Rodin, Paris, 2004, p. 151). Like his artistic predecessors, Rodin sought to convey the highly emotive moment in which remorse and shame overtake Eve, conveying her grief and guilt purely through the physicality of her body.
Rodin had been forced to leave his initial marble sculpture of Eve unfinished, the surface of the marble still rough and uneven, after his model became pregnant and stopped attending the studio to pose. Rather than abandoning his idea altogether, however, Rodin reconceived the sculpture at a smaller scale, creating both bronze and marble versions in which he made certain adjustments as he worked, refining the proportions and smoothing the contours of the figure, accentuating particular details to enhance the emotional resonance of the pose. Here, Rodin explores a more youthful vision of Eve, set atop a small rocky outcropping, a feature which led Georges Grappe to christen her Eve au rocher. The textured, weather-beaten stone offers a stark contrast to the smooth, rounded forms of her body, its craggy surface acting as an anchor as it reaches three-quarters of the way up her legs.
The present bronze was commissioned by the American historian Henry Brooks Adams in the autumn of 1900. Adams was among an important new audience of international collectors drawn to Rodin’s work following the artist’s independent solo-exhibition at the Pavillon de l’Alma in 1900. Sponsored by the French banker Albert Kahn and held to coincide with the Exposition Universelle, this show marked a watershed moment in the reception of Rodin’s art, cementing his position as the leading sculptor of his day. The Adams commission is well-documented across a series of letters between Rodin and Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, who acted on Adams’s behalf in the negotiations with the artist, which are now preserved in the Musée Rodin in Paris and the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. A renowned hostess who was considered among the most beautiful and intelligent women in Washington, D.C. during the 1870s and 1880s, Cameron was a close friend of Adams and his wife Clover, and was quickly absorbed into their social circles while based in the US capital. It is possible that Adams believed that with her sparkling personality and beauty, Cameron would win Rodin over.
On 18 November 1900, Cameron notified Rodin that she had arrived in Paris, and asked him to deliver the bronze of Eve if it was ready. However, the artist reported that he was dissatisfied with the original patina and delayed the delivery by several weeks. Following multiple notes and invitations from the artist, Cameron visited him at his studio, during which time they appear to have discussed the finish for the present bronze – in a letter from mid-December, Rodin wrote to Cameron that ‘Eve now has a new patina which seems superior to me. Your taste guides me well’ (quoted in A.B. Tehan, Henry Adams in Love: The Pursuit of Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, New York, 1983, p. 193). The work was delivered at the end of the month, with Cameron thanking the artist for sending Eve on New Year’s Eve and complementing the choice of the finish. The sculpture was subsequently gifted by Adams to Cameron, or possibly her daughter Martha Cameron Lindsay, who married the English diplomat Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay in 1909. Following Martha’s untimely death at the age of just thirty-two, the work passed to her husband, and has remained in the Lindsay family ever since.
Rodin began work on Eve in the early 1880s, shortly after receiving a much-coveted commission from the French government for La porte de l’enfer, a monumental gateway representing Dante’s Inferno. His initial version of Eve was a life-sized marble, and early sketches for the gates show that he considered placing the statue either between the two doors, like the trumeau of a Gothic portal, or on top of them. By October 1881, however, he had come to view Eve as a pendant to the sculpture now known as Adam, which had been exhibited at the Salon that spring under the title La Création. Both figures appear lost in the moment the consequences of their actions dawn upon them: Adam’s body is twisted in anguish, his right hand held away from his body, while Eve recoils, her arms raised as she hides herself in shame. The artist intended to stage the two figures on either side of La porte de l’enfer, positioning them as symbolic gatekeepers of man’s perdition. However, the monumental Eve was left unfinished and not included in the final composition for La porte de l’enfer; instead, the piece became a work in its own right, finding great success through a series of variations in both bronze and marble.
Eve’s dynamic, theatrical gesture invokes not only the art of Ancient Greece, in particular the Venus Pudica type in classical sculpture, but also depictions of the subject from the Italian Renaissance, such as Masaccio’s Expulsion from Paradise in the Brancacci Chapel and Michelangelo’s version of the same scene on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. A self-taught sculptor, Rodin had discovered the power of Michelangelo in 1876, recalling: ‘When I myself went to Italy, my brain full of Greek models that I had passionately studied at the Louvre, I was greatly disconcerted by the Michelangelos. They were always refuting the truths I thought I’d permanently learnt!’ (quoted in R. Masson and V. Mattiussi, Rodin, Paris, 2004, p. 151). Like his artistic predecessors, Rodin sought to convey the highly emotive moment in which remorse and shame overtake Eve, conveying her grief and guilt purely through the physicality of her body.
Rodin had been forced to leave his initial marble sculpture of Eve unfinished, the surface of the marble still rough and uneven, after his model became pregnant and stopped attending the studio to pose. Rather than abandoning his idea altogether, however, Rodin reconceived the sculpture at a smaller scale, creating both bronze and marble versions in which he made certain adjustments as he worked, refining the proportions and smoothing the contours of the figure, accentuating particular details to enhance the emotional resonance of the pose. Here, Rodin explores a more youthful vision of Eve, set atop a small rocky outcropping, a feature which led Georges Grappe to christen her Eve au rocher. The textured, weather-beaten stone offers a stark contrast to the smooth, rounded forms of her body, its craggy surface acting as an anchor as it reaches three-quarters of the way up her legs.
The present bronze was commissioned by the American historian Henry Brooks Adams in the autumn of 1900. Adams was among an important new audience of international collectors drawn to Rodin’s work following the artist’s independent solo-exhibition at the Pavillon de l’Alma in 1900. Sponsored by the French banker Albert Kahn and held to coincide with the Exposition Universelle, this show marked a watershed moment in the reception of Rodin’s art, cementing his position as the leading sculptor of his day. The Adams commission is well-documented across a series of letters between Rodin and Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, who acted on Adams’s behalf in the negotiations with the artist, which are now preserved in the Musée Rodin in Paris and the Massachusetts Historical Society in Boston. A renowned hostess who was considered among the most beautiful and intelligent women in Washington, D.C. during the 1870s and 1880s, Cameron was a close friend of Adams and his wife Clover, and was quickly absorbed into their social circles while based in the US capital. It is possible that Adams believed that with her sparkling personality and beauty, Cameron would win Rodin over.
On 18 November 1900, Cameron notified Rodin that she had arrived in Paris, and asked him to deliver the bronze of Eve if it was ready. However, the artist reported that he was dissatisfied with the original patina and delayed the delivery by several weeks. Following multiple notes and invitations from the artist, Cameron visited him at his studio, during which time they appear to have discussed the finish for the present bronze – in a letter from mid-December, Rodin wrote to Cameron that ‘Eve now has a new patina which seems superior to me. Your taste guides me well’ (quoted in A.B. Tehan, Henry Adams in Love: The Pursuit of Elizabeth Sherman Cameron, New York, 1983, p. 193). The work was delivered at the end of the month, with Cameron thanking the artist for sending Eve on New Year’s Eve and complementing the choice of the finish. The sculpture was subsequently gifted by Adams to Cameron, or possibly her daughter Martha Cameron Lindsay, who married the English diplomat Sir Ronald Charles Lindsay in 1909. Following Martha’s untimely death at the age of just thirty-two, the work passed to her husband, and has remained in the Lindsay family ever since.