Lot Essay
Je suis belle and Fugit Amor derive from figures designed for Rodin's celebrated La Porte de l'Enfer. In these works, men seek to grasp the unsubmissive forms of women, who for Rodin signified the elusive lure of love and passion. Both represent Dante's creations of carnal desire and immoral love as described in his Divine Comedy.
The figure of the man and woman in Je suis belle are clearly visible at the upper right of the final version of La Porte de l'Enfer. "The male figure of Je suis belle was one of Rodin's favourite forms. Seen from the front, the chest area has strong affinities with antique torsos like those he had seen in Brussels and which he was later to acquire for his own collection. The back shows that forceful, expressive modeling that the artist accentuated in The Gates so that in spite of its position high up in the right bas-relief, it can be clearly seen in the figure clinging to the base of the lintel to the lower left of The Thinker, it occurs again in a group (known as Avarice and Lust) next to the tomb at the lower right. This back may have been inspired by, or in turn inspired, those of The Burghers of Calais for its exact date is not known." (A. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 62).
"With Je suis belle Rodin began to act on impulse and do whatever was necessary to reach a level of feeling. The woman's right hand on her ankle had to be severed and a new one added, one which dropped down so that the gaps between the bodies could be eliminated. Under strong light, the mass consists of ridges of sharp reflected light and dark undersides. The treatment borrows from painters as well as sculptors, vigour, rhythm and an idea about contiguous forms. Even so, the translation of Adèle's unique exposure of her longing into a rhapsodic, folded-up creature was new and magnificent...even before it was shown at the Galerie Georges Petit in the summer of 1886 Je suis belle caused a sensation among critics: 'No-one has ever succeeded so well in expressing the savage onslaught of Desire and the furious cries of the flesh'...Je suis belle is complete in its own right; it is one of those images, like The Thinker or The Kiss which lodges itself in the brain, not as a mere example of Rodin's erotic fantasy, his pairing of images, but as a paradoxical thing that has a unity all of its own." (C. Lampert, Rodin - Sculptures and Drawings, London, 1986, p. 66).
The figure of the man and woman in Je suis belle are clearly visible at the upper right of the final version of La Porte de l'Enfer. "The male figure of Je suis belle was one of Rodin's favourite forms. Seen from the front, the chest area has strong affinities with antique torsos like those he had seen in Brussels and which he was later to acquire for his own collection. The back shows that forceful, expressive modeling that the artist accentuated in The Gates so that in spite of its position high up in the right bas-relief, it can be clearly seen in the figure clinging to the base of the lintel to the lower left of The Thinker, it occurs again in a group (known as Avarice and Lust) next to the tomb at the lower right. This back may have been inspired by, or in turn inspired, those of The Burghers of Calais for its exact date is not known." (A. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 62).
"With Je suis belle Rodin began to act on impulse and do whatever was necessary to reach a level of feeling. The woman's right hand on her ankle had to be severed and a new one added, one which dropped down so that the gaps between the bodies could be eliminated. Under strong light, the mass consists of ridges of sharp reflected light and dark undersides. The treatment borrows from painters as well as sculptors, vigour, rhythm and an idea about contiguous forms. Even so, the translation of Adèle's unique exposure of her longing into a rhapsodic, folded-up creature was new and magnificent...even before it was shown at the Galerie Georges Petit in the summer of 1886 Je suis belle caused a sensation among critics: 'No-one has ever succeeded so well in expressing the savage onslaught of Desire and the furious cries of the flesh'...Je suis belle is complete in its own right; it is one of those images, like The Thinker or The Kiss which lodges itself in the brain, not as a mere example of Rodin's erotic fantasy, his pairing of images, but as a paradoxical thing that has a unity all of its own." (C. Lampert, Rodin - Sculptures and Drawings, London, 1986, p. 66).