Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Polyphème

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Polyphème
signed and inscribed 'Rodin a mon cher ami Lefevre' (on the underside)
varnished plaster
Height: 10 in. (25.4 cm.)
Conceived in 1888; this plaster version cast before 1910

Provenance

Camille Lefevre, Brussels (gift from the artist).
Marie Howet (gift from the above).
By descent from the above to the present owner.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue de Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 54, no. 118 (bronze versions illustrated).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 92.
L. Goldscheider, Rodin Sculptures, London, 1970, p. 121, no. 51 (bronze version illustrated).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 212, no. 23 (another plaster version illustrated, p. 213).

Lot Essay

The figure of Polyphemus appears above the center panel of La porte d'Enfer. The subject is derived from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book 13, in which the story of Polyphemus's love for Galatea is told. Polyphemus was a one-eyed Cyclops who fell in love with the sea-nymph Galatea, who was in turn, in love with a handsome youth named Acis. According to Ovid's tale, Polyphemus would sit on the rocks overlooking the sea, playing love songs to court Galatea. He became angered one day when he came upon the two lovers and, in his rage, he killed Acis with a huge boulder. In the present work, Rodin chose "to depict Polyphemus as he goes out to the end of a rocky premontory to court Galatea" (J.L. Tancock, op. cit., p. 210).

There are six existing plasters, five of which are located in the following musuems: The Philadelphia Museum of Art; Museo de Barcelona; Saarbruck Museum, Germany; Musée Faure, Aix-les-Bains, France; and Musée Rodin, Paris.

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