Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

L'éternel Printemps, premier état

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
L'éternel Printemps, premier état
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the top of the base); dated and inscribed with foundry mark 'c by musée Rodin.1969..Georges Rudier..Fondeur.Paris.' (on the back of the base); with raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the inside)
bronze with green and black patina
Height: 20¼ in. (51.2 cm.)
Conceived in 1884; this bronze version cast in 1969

Provenance

Musée Rodin, Paris.
Dominion Gallery, Montreal (acquired from the above, 1969).
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1970.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, p. 141, no. 56 (large marble version illustrated, p. 56).
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 135 (large bronze version illustrated, p. 134).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 96 (large bronze version illustrated, pls. 56-57).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 241-247, no. 32b (large bronze version illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, Washington D.C., 1981, pl. 48 (large bronze version illustrated).

Lot Essay

As in many of his great figure groupings, Rodin developed the characters in L'éternel Printemps from earlier material. The figure of the woman is derived from Torse d'Adèle, which appears on the top left corner of the tympanum of La porte de l'Enfer. The lovers were originally know as Zéphyr et la Terre and were exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1898 as Cupidon et Psyché (there are small Cupid's wings on the back of the man).

L'éternel Printemps, premier état

Lot Essay

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