Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Etude pour Pierre de Wiessant, nu

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Etude pour Pierre de Wiessant, nu
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the top of the base); dated ' by Muse Rodin. 1961.' (on the left side of the base); inscribed with foundry mark 'Georges Rudier. Fondeur. Paris.' (on the back of the base); stamped with raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the underside)
bronze with green and black patina
Height: 26 in. (68 cm.)
Original plaster version executed in 1885; this bronze version cast in 1961

Provenance

Muse Rodin, Paris.
Charles E. Slatkin Gallery, New York (acquired from the above, 1964; acquired by the present owner).

Literature

I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 97. J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 376-402, nos. 67-69 (plaster version illustrated, p. 387).
A.E. Elsen, In Rodin's Studio, Oxford, 1980, pls. 55 and 56 (clay version illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, Washington, D.C., 1981, p. 212, figs. 9.8-9.10 (clay version illustrated).

Lot Essay

Originally executed in 1885 this sculpture is a study for the figure of Pierre de Wiessant from the monument Les Bourgeois de Calais. Beginning in 1885, Rodin executed a series of studies of single Burghers, nude and clothed in preparation for the monument which was unveiled in Calais in 1895.