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Lot Essay
Rodin completed the first plaster version of La mort d'Adonis (Tancock 43; coll. Rodin Museum, Philadelphia) by 1888, and in the following year he modeled a companion work in plaster, the maquette for the present marble sculpture, depicting the resurrection of Adonis.
Tancock has noted the association of La mort d'Adonis with the "Ovidian world" (op. cit., p. 276). Indeed, there were copies in Rodin's library of French translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses and The Art of Love that showed evidence of their frequent use, and Rodin had executed some drawings for the poet's love poems which were not published until after his death. It is primarily through Ovid's Metamorphoses that most modern readers know the story of Venus and Adonis. Ovid recounts how Adonis came from the incestuous union of Myrrha and her father Cinyras; as Myrrha was fleeing from the scene of her transgression she was transformed into a tree, which later split open to give birth to Adonis. As a beautiful young man, Adonis was loved by Venus, who warned him not to hunt dangerous beasts. Adonis, however, could not resist the lure of the hunt, and was gored in the loins by a boar. Rodin's La mort d'Adonis shows Venus grieving over the body of her beloved. Ovid concludes his tale by having the goddess transform the young man's spilt blood into the fragile flowering red anemone.
The figure of Adonis in Rodin's plaster La mort d'Adonis is androgynous; in subsequent versions and in the present work his male genitalia are clearly apparent. In Le reveil d'Adonis, Venus is absent, and in her place are three nymphs whose tender caresses draw the figure of Adonis back to life. As the noted French art critic Camille Mauclair commented in 1903 upon viewing the present work in the artist's studio, "Rodin has a personal way to explain his intention about one of his works, elliptical and in the meantime perfectly clear. He makes no useless gestures; only few movements of the forefinger modelling in the air. But his head moves and lights up; he's looking at a marble. 'This is Adonis. You see, he's sleeping and he's awakened by two nymphs, one touches his forehead and the other one kisses his heart. I've tried to express the awakening of a joyful sun, of a happy nudity" (quoted in C. Mauclair, op. cit.).
Reporting on his visit to Rodin's studio in January 1904, a journalist from the London newspaper, The Gentleman, noted, 'I saw particulary among other interesting works, a marble group of two female figures bent over a sleeping young boy: the muses awakening teh spring. This group is probably one of the most charming works by Rodin of the latest years and we're glad that this work will go into a British home: it now belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Réa. Mrs. Réa and her daughter-in-law spent some time in the artist's studio before their departure for London and that's the nicest way to spend an afternoon.'
(fig. 1) Another view of the present work.
Tancock has noted the association of La mort d'Adonis with the "Ovidian world" (op. cit., p. 276). Indeed, there were copies in Rodin's library of French translations of Ovid's Metamorphoses and The Art of Love that showed evidence of their frequent use, and Rodin had executed some drawings for the poet's love poems which were not published until after his death. It is primarily through Ovid's Metamorphoses that most modern readers know the story of Venus and Adonis. Ovid recounts how Adonis came from the incestuous union of Myrrha and her father Cinyras; as Myrrha was fleeing from the scene of her transgression she was transformed into a tree, which later split open to give birth to Adonis. As a beautiful young man, Adonis was loved by Venus, who warned him not to hunt dangerous beasts. Adonis, however, could not resist the lure of the hunt, and was gored in the loins by a boar. Rodin's La mort d'Adonis shows Venus grieving over the body of her beloved. Ovid concludes his tale by having the goddess transform the young man's spilt blood into the fragile flowering red anemone.
The figure of Adonis in Rodin's plaster La mort d'Adonis is androgynous; in subsequent versions and in the present work his male genitalia are clearly apparent. In Le reveil d'Adonis, Venus is absent, and in her place are three nymphs whose tender caresses draw the figure of Adonis back to life. As the noted French art critic Camille Mauclair commented in 1903 upon viewing the present work in the artist's studio, "Rodin has a personal way to explain his intention about one of his works, elliptical and in the meantime perfectly clear. He makes no useless gestures; only few movements of the forefinger modelling in the air. But his head moves and lights up; he's looking at a marble. 'This is Adonis. You see, he's sleeping and he's awakened by two nymphs, one touches his forehead and the other one kisses his heart. I've tried to express the awakening of a joyful sun, of a happy nudity" (quoted in C. Mauclair, op. cit.).
Reporting on his visit to Rodin's studio in January 1904, a journalist from the London newspaper, The Gentleman, noted, 'I saw particulary among other interesting works, a marble group of two female figures bent over a sleeping young boy: the muses awakening teh spring. This group is probably one of the most charming works by Rodin of the latest years and we're glad that this work will go into a British home: it now belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Réa. Mrs. Réa and her daughter-in-law spent some time in the artist's studio before their departure for London and that's the nicest way to spend an afternoon.'
(fig. 1) Another view of the present work.