Lot Essay
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."
"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."