Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Etude pour 'Eve au pilier'

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Rodin, A.
Etude pour 'Eve au pilier'
signed and numbered 'A. Rodin No. 10' (on the front); dated 'c by muse Rodin. 1978' (on the right side); inscribed with foundry mark '.Georges Rudier..Fondeur.Paris.' (on the back)
bronze with dark brown patina
Height: 17 in. (43 cm.)
conceived in 1878-1880; this bronze version cast in 1978
bronze with dark brown patina
Height: 17 in. (43 cm.)
Conceived in 1878-1880; this bronze version cast in 1978

Provenance

Muse Rodin, Paris.
B.G. Cantor, Beverly Hills (acquired from the above).
Joseph Gaumont, New York (acquired from the above).
Acquired from the estate of the above by the present owners, circa 1994.

Literature

J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 148-157, no. 8-4 (another cast illustrated, p. 153).

Lot Essay

In 1880 Rodin proposed to flank the Gates of Hell with monumental figures of Adam and Eve. Adam was nearly complete when he began work on Eve, exhibiting a half life-size version of it in London in 1883. It was not until 1899 that the sculptor displayed the life-size Eve at the Paris Salon.

The present sculpture is a study for Eve which Rodin used again in 1912-1913, together with a figure of Adam, in the preliminary design for a fireplace. In contrast to the later version of Eve, the present sculpture is elongated and more exaggerated in its movement.

Etude pour 'Eve au pilier'

Lot Essay

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