.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
In the mid-1880s Auguste Rodin was intent on exploring themes of eroticism and passion in his work. Executed in 1885, Rodin incorporated this dynamic figural group of two figures locked in a passionate embrace into the top right corner of the cornice of La Porte de l'Enfer. There exist a number of closely related works, such as Cupid and Psyche and Daphnis and Lycenion, all completed in 1886.
In a discussion of the influence of Ovid's writings on Rodin's work, Catherine Lampert notes, "Rodin's library contained several copies of the Métamorphoses as well as Ovid's complete poems and The Art of Loving. It was not uncommon in the late nineteenth century to read Ovid: the Symbolists did, and he was still popular with the generation of Maillol and Faure." Speculating on the further impact of literary sources on Rodin's creative vision, she continues, "Ovid's view that the downfall of mankind was caused by physical desire accorded with the importance Rodin attached to what he admitted were the 'stirrings of the brute.'"
The subject does not refer to one specific Ovidian story, but is instead a general exploration of the theme of metamorphosis through the various transformations of the human body. While the bottom figure is a recognizable female, the gender of the top figure is more ambiguous displaying both male and female characteristics.
As the inscription reveals, the present work was a gift from the artist to his friend, Maurice Rollinat, a French poet. A true admirer of the poet, after Rollinat's death, Rodin carved a marble in memory of the artist entitled Le poête et sa pensée which he gave to the poet's native village of Fresselines. In a letter from Rollinat to Rodin now in the archives of the Musée Rodin, Rollinat expresses his appreciation by writing: "Your wonderful sculpture arrived well and I do not wish to spend all my time installing it in the country without thanking you from the bottom of my heart and insisting that you come to visit as soon as possible." Rollinat was then a close friend of art collector and patron, Georges Haviland who acquired the bronze at the death of the poet in 1903.
In a discussion of the influence of Ovid's writings on Rodin's work, Catherine Lampert notes, "Rodin's library contained several copies of the Métamorphoses as well as Ovid's complete poems and The Art of Loving. It was not uncommon in the late nineteenth century to read Ovid: the Symbolists did, and he was still popular with the generation of Maillol and Faure." Speculating on the further impact of literary sources on Rodin's creative vision, she continues, "Ovid's view that the downfall of mankind was caused by physical desire accorded with the importance Rodin attached to what he admitted were the 'stirrings of the brute.'"
The subject does not refer to one specific Ovidian story, but is instead a general exploration of the theme of metamorphosis through the various transformations of the human body. While the bottom figure is a recognizable female, the gender of the top figure is more ambiguous displaying both male and female characteristics.
As the inscription reveals, the present work was a gift from the artist to his friend, Maurice Rollinat, a French poet. A true admirer of the poet, after Rollinat's death, Rodin carved a marble in memory of the artist entitled Le poête et sa pensée which he gave to the poet's native village of Fresselines. In a letter from Rollinat to Rodin now in the archives of the Musée Rodin, Rollinat expresses his appreciation by writing: "Your wonderful sculpture arrived well and I do not wish to spend all my time installing it in the country without thanking you from the bottom of my heart and insisting that you come to visit as soon as possible." Rollinat was then a close friend of art collector and patron, Georges Haviland who acquired the bronze at the death of the poet in 1903.