Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

L'athlète, deuxième version

Details

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
L'athlète, deuxième version
signed and numbered 'A. Rodin No 2' (on the left side) and inscribed with foundry mark 'Alexis Rudier Fondeur. Paris' (on the back of the base); with raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the underside)
bronze with black and green patina
Height: 17 1/8 in. (43.5 cm.)
Conceived in 1901-1904; this bronze version cast in the late 1940s

Provenance

Anon. sale, Sotheby's, London, 26 June 1984, lot 3.
Anon. sale, Phillips, London, 29 June 1987, lot 5.
Acquired by the present owner, 1993.

Literature

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 91, no. 252 (another cast illustrated).
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 205 (another cast illustrated in color).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 109 (dated as conceived in 1903).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 318, no. 57-2 (another cast illustrated, p. 321).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin's Art: The Rodin Collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, New York, 2003, pp. 473-476, no. 142 (another cast illustrated, pp. 473-475).

Sale room notice

Jérôme Le Blay will include this sculpture in his forthcoming Catalogue Critique des sculptures d'Auguste Rodin being prepared in association with Galerie Brame & Lorenceau under the archive number 2003V290B.

Please note the correct title is L'athlète, version type B or Tête regardant à droite, and it was conceived in 1901 and cast in November 1950.
The correct provenance details are:
Musée Rodin, Paris.
M. Albert Lespinasse, Paris (acquired from the above, 1955); sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 23 June 1986, lot 22.
Julian Hartnoll, London (acquired at the above sale).
Robert Bowman Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above by the present owner, 1993.

Lot Essay

The model for this sculpure was Samuel Stockton White III, from Germantown, Pennsylvania. While attending Cambridge University, he won the Sandow Medal in 1899 for the best physical development in the United Kingdom, and a friend suggested that he model for Rodin. The artist, who greatly preferred working with unprofessional models, was deeply impressed by White's physique and immediately accepted the American as a model. White recounted his modelling session as follows: "After trying me in several standing poses he suggested that I take a pose of my own which I did--seated--the pose being somewhat similar to The Thinker."

There are two versions of this sculpture, the present one with the head looking straight forward, and the second with the head turned to the left side.

More from Impressionist and Modern Art (Day Sale)

View All