AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917)

Details

AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917)
Mouvement de danse 'A'
signed and numbered on the top of the base 'A. Rodin no. 8', inscribed on the back of the base '© Musée Rodin 1957 Georges Rudier Fondeur'--with raised signature inside 'A. Rodin'-- bronze with brown and green patina
Height: 28in. (71cm.)
Original plaster version executed in 1910; this bronze version cast in 1957, number eight in an edition of 12

Provenance

Musée Rodin, Paris

Literature

R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 250 (small version illustrated, fig. E)
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 113 (another cast illustrated, pl. 76)
ed. A. E. Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, Washington, D.C., 1981, no. 6.22 (small version illustrated, p. 136)

Lot Essay

In 1892 American Loïe Fuller's veil dances at the Folies-Bergère became the rage of Paris. Her free and spontaneous approach to movement kindled in Rodin an interest in dance, and during this time he also became friendly with Isadora Duncan, who established a 'temple' to the cult of the Greek dance in Bellevue, near the sculptor's studio in Meudon. Rodin sketched her students in their movements, lamenting 'if I had only known such models when I was young. Models who move and whose movement is in close harmony with nature.' (R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, op. cit, p. 246)

In 1910-1911 Rodin executed a series of nine figures entitled Mouvements de danse. The plaster versions remain in the collection of the Musée Rodin, which cast them posthumously in bronze.