Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Grande main crispe

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Rodin, A.
Grande main crispe
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the right side); dated and inscribed with foundry mark 'C by Muse Rodin.1964. .Georges Rudier. .Fondeur. Paris.' (on the back)
bronze with green and black patina
Height: 18 in. (46.4 cm.)
Original version executed circa 1885; this bronze version cast in 1964

Provenance

Muse Rodin, Paris.
Dominion Gallery, Montreal (acquired from the above, 1967).
Acquired from the above by the present owner.

Literature

C. Mauclair, L'oeuvre de Rodin, Paris, 1900, pp. 30-32 (another cast illustrated).
F.-G. Watkins, Rodin Museum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1929, no. 29.
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 81 (another cast illustrated, p. 80).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 93.
J.-L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 616-620, no. 119 (another cast illustrated, p. 619).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, Washington, D.C., 1981, nos. 182-185 (another cast illustrated, p. 223).

Lot Essay

According to John Tancock, this work is believed to be an early model for the hands in Les Bourgeois de Calais of 1886, but was most likely rejected by Rodin as it was too fierce in its expressiveness (op. cit., p. 616).

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