AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917)

Iris, messagère des Dieux

Details
AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917)
Iris, messagère des Dieux
signed on the right foot 'A. Rodin', inscribed on the left foot 'Alexis.Rudier Fondeur.Paris'
bronze with green and black patina
Height: 32 in. (81.3 cm.)
Original version executed in 1890-1891; this bronze version cast circa 1920
Provenance
Acquired by the family of the present owner circa 1926
Literature
G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, no. 171 (another cast illustrated)
M. Aubert, Rodin Sculptures, Paris, 1952, p. 50 (another cast illustrated)
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 185 (another cast illustrated)
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 249 (small terracotta version illustrated)
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Auguste Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 103 (small bronze version illustrated, pl. 77)
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 290-292 (small bronze version illustrated, p. 290)
A.E. Elsen, In Rodin's Studio, Ithaca, New York, 1980, no. 95 (plaster version illustrated)
C. Lampert, Rodin Sculpture and Drawings, London, 1986, nos. 141 and 144 (small bronze version and another cast illustrated, pls. 206-207)

Lot Essay

One of Rodin's most daring works, Iris, messagère des Dieux evolved out of studies for the sculptor's second project for the Victor Hugo monument. Intended to be a personification of Glory, it initially descended from above and hovered over Victor Hugo. The earliest and smallest study has a head which was eliminated when the figure was enlarged by Lebossé and exhibited independently. In an article on the Victor Hugo monument, J.M. Roos wrote:

The winged Iris crowns the monument in a highly unconventional way...Iris grasps her right foot in her right hand and opens her thighs in a pose of candid, aggressive sexuality. The eroticism implicit in the earlier Muses explodes here in a blunt gesture that has little precedent in the history of Western art. (J.M. Roos, "Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo: Art and Politics in the Third Republic," The Art Bulletin, Dec., 1986, vol. LXVIII, no. 4, New York, pp. 654-655)

Through his friendship with Isadora Duncan, Rodin had become absorbed with movement; this is one of his many works from the early 1890's that suggests the abandoned poses of modern dance. Although it is just as likely that a professional studio model posed for this sculpture, it has often been said that a cancan dancer served as Rodin's model. During the 1890's the work was among the most controversial that could be seen in Rodin's studio, but by 1914, he included a modified version of it in a large group of works which he donated to the Victoria and Albert Museum.