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    Sale 1995

    Impressionist And Modern Art Day Sale

    New York

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    7 May 2008

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    • Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
    Lot 305

    Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

    Frere et souer

    Price realised

    USD 181,000

    Estimate

    USD 100,000 - USD 150,000

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    Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
    Frere et souer
    signed 'A. Rodin' (on the front of the base); stamped with foundry mark 'Alexis.RUDIER Fondeur.PARIS' (on the left side of the base); with raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the underside)
    bronze with black patina
    Height: 15¼ in. (38.7 cm.)
    Conceived circa 1890-1891; this bronze version cast in 1920

    Provenance

    Musée Rodin, Paris.
    Jules Mastbaum, Philadelphia (acquired from the above, October 1924).
    Elizabeth Dinehart, New York (by descent from the above).
    By descent from the above to the present owner, July 1991.

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    Literature and exhibited

    Literature

    G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 67, no. 166 (another cast illustrated).
    G. Grappe, Le Musée Rodin, Paris, 1934, p. 48 (another cast illustrated).
    G. Grappe, Le Musée Rodin, Paris, 1944, p. 143, no. 97 (another cast illustrated).
    E. Herriot, Rodin, Paris, 1949, nos. 34-35 (other casts illustrated).
    M. Aubert, Rodin Sculptures, Paris, 1952, p. 49 (another cast illustrated).
    B. Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, p. 283, no. 107 (another cast illustrated, p. 214).
    I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 104.
    L. Goldscheider, Rodin Sculptures, London, 1970, p. 122, no. 60 (another cast illustrated).
    J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 222, no. 25-2 (another cast illustrated, p. 223).


    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 2008-1792B.

    The first owner of this sculpture was Jules Mastbaum (1872-1926), a major figure in the early American film industry and one of Philadelphia's leading philanthropists. In 1922, as he approached his fiftieth year, he commissioned Albert Rosenthal to purchase works of art on his behalf in Europe. During one of his own trips to Paris, Mr. Mastbaum acquired his first small bronze sculpture by Rodin, a purchase which triggered a lasting passion for the works of this great sculptor, who had died less than six years before. Mr. Mastbaum quickly transformed his private interest into a public project, and conceived the idea of establishing a museum in Philadelphia dedicated solely to the works of Rodin, thus forming an American counterpart to the Musée Rodin in Paris.

    From 1924 to 1926, Mr. Mastbaum acquired casts of all the works in the Musée Rodin collection. He was also instrumental in casting the first bronze versions of the Porte de l'Enfer, which had existed only in a plaster version when the sculptor died. The first cast went to the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and the second went to the Musée Rodin in Paris.

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