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Lot Essay
This work will be included in the forthcoming Auguste Rodin catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculpté currently being prepared by the Comité Rodin at Galerie Brame et Lorenceau under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay under the archive number 2006V900B.
La sirène is a captivating and enigmatic relief work originally conceived by Rodin in 1885 as part of his masterpiece, La porte de l'Enfer. Designed to sit on the inside base of the left pilaster, the work depicts a half beast half human amalgam similar to many of the other figures featured throughout La porte de l'Enfer. La sirène was situated to face a counterpoint relief titled Le créateur, which has been interpreted by scholars such as Albert Elsen as ambivalently either a self-portrait or even a representation of God.
In 1886, Maurice Fenaille, a significant patron and friend of the artist, commissioned Rodin to execute a stone carving of La sirène for the staircase of his newly built home in Neuilly (fig. 1). At the time, Fenaille, a pioneer of the oil industry in France, was possibly Rodin's most important patron. He commissioned about 50 works directly from the artist, most notably a portrait of Marie Fenaille and a group of four bathers to display around his swimming pool.
In addition to the first carving, Fenaille simultaneously acquired a plaster version of La sirène and also a bronze cast which he donated to the Museé des Art Decoratifs in Paris in 1908. In December 1913, Mrs. Fenaille commissioned Rodin to create a second carving of La sirène, presumably also for the house in Neuilly. According to current scholarship, research primarily for the exhibition dedicated to Maurice Fenaille and Rodin at the Museé des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in 1998, it appears that due to World War I, the second carving stayed with Rodin at the Hotel Biron for many years and was finally delivered to Maurice Fenaille in March 1917 (A. Romain-Le Normand, op. cit., p. 32, note 43).
(fig. 1) Mrs. Maurice Fenaille descends her staircase at 19, rue de la Ferme, Neuilly, circa 1900. The first stone carving of La sirène is visible in the pillar at the center right edge of the photograph.
La sirène is a captivating and enigmatic relief work originally conceived by Rodin in 1885 as part of his masterpiece, La porte de l'Enfer. Designed to sit on the inside base of the left pilaster, the work depicts a half beast half human amalgam similar to many of the other figures featured throughout La porte de l'Enfer. La sirène was situated to face a counterpoint relief titled Le créateur, which has been interpreted by scholars such as Albert Elsen as ambivalently either a self-portrait or even a representation of God.
In 1886, Maurice Fenaille, a significant patron and friend of the artist, commissioned Rodin to execute a stone carving of La sirène for the staircase of his newly built home in Neuilly (fig. 1). At the time, Fenaille, a pioneer of the oil industry in France, was possibly Rodin's most important patron. He commissioned about 50 works directly from the artist, most notably a portrait of Marie Fenaille and a group of four bathers to display around his swimming pool.
In addition to the first carving, Fenaille simultaneously acquired a plaster version of La sirène and also a bronze cast which he donated to the Museé des Art Decoratifs in Paris in 1908. In December 1913, Mrs. Fenaille commissioned Rodin to create a second carving of La sirène, presumably also for the house in Neuilly. According to current scholarship, research primarily for the exhibition dedicated to Maurice Fenaille and Rodin at the Museé des Beaux-Arts de Lyon in 1998, it appears that due to World War I, the second carving stayed with Rodin at the Hotel Biron for many years and was finally delivered to Maurice Fenaille in March 1917 (A. Romain-Le Normand, op. cit., p. 32, note 43).
(fig. 1) Mrs. Maurice Fenaille descends her staircase at 19, rue de la Ferme, Neuilly, circa 1900. The first stone carving of La sirène is visible in the pillar at the center right edge of the photograph.