Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Iris, messagre des Dieux

细节

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Rodin, A.
Iris, messagre des Dieux
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the back of the right foot); inscribed with foundry mark 'Alexis. Rudier Fondeur Paris.' (on the back of the left foot)
bronze with green and brown patina
Height: 32 in. (81 cm.)
Conceived in 1890-1891; this bronze version cast circa 1918

来源

Eugne Rudier, Paris.
Lucien Bloch, Paris (acquired from Eugne Rudier before 1919).
Maurice Josephson (acquired from the above, 1919).
By descent to the previous owner.

出版

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Muse Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 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 (another cast illustrated).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 103, (another cast illustrated), pl.77.
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976,
pp. 288-292 (another cast illustrated, p. 290).
A.E. Elsen, In Rodin's Studio, A Photographic Record of Sculpture in the Making, Ithaca, New York, 1980, no. 95 (another cast illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, Washington, D.C., 1981, pl. 111 (another cast illustrated).
C. Lampert, Rodin Sculpture and Drawings, London, 1986, nos. 141 and 144, pls. 206-207 (another cast illustrated).
J.M. Roos, "Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo: Art and Politics in the Third Republic," The Art Bulletin, December 1986, vol. LXVIII, no. 4, New York, pp. 654-655 (another cast illustrated, pl. 24).

拍品专文

One of Rodin's most daring works, Iris, messagre 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 Leboss 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, op. cit., 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 1890s 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 can-can dancer served as Rodin's model. During the 1890s 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.

In a letter from Lucien Bloch to Maurice Josephson, dated 23 April 1919, he states,

"You have always proposed the eventual purchase of some works that you have admired in my salon.
I am therefore ready to part with the painting by Sisley, Moret-sur- Loing; the beautiful portrait of a young girl by Renoir, acquired at Durand-Ruel's and my two bronzes of Rodin, Iris and Le Baisser, originating with Rudier. I suggest that we can meet at my house."