Auguste Rodin

Musée Rodin, Paris
Sacha Guitry, Paris (acquired from the above in March, 1943)
Lana Marconi, Paris (by descent from the above, 1957)
Sale: Hôtel Drouot, Paris, November 26, 1976, lot 17
Samuel Josefowitz, Lausanne
Ellen Melas Kyriazi, Lausanne
Acquired from the above

Camille Mauclair, L'Oeuvre de Rodin, Paris, 1900, pp. 30-32, illustration of another cast
Franklin Watkins, Rodin Museum of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1929, no. 29
Albert E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, illustration of another cast p. 80
Iionel Jianou & Cécile Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 93
John L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 616-17, no. 119, illustration of another cast p. 618
Albert E. Elsen, Rodin Rediscovered, Washington, D.C., 1981, p. 223, nos. 182-185, illustration of another cast 

Very good condition. Reddish brown patina. The patina in the palm of the hand is more reddish. Small amount of verdigris on base of ring finger. Some plaster residue in the wrist and inside knuckle of index finger; this is inherent to casting process.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Auguste Rodin's sculptures were surrounded by as much controversy as the paintings of the Impressionists who were working during his time. Like Impressionist paintings, when we look at Rodin's sculpture through today's lens, we tend to forget just how controversial his work was when it was first exhibited. For instance, one of his early masterpieces, The Age of Bronze (1875-76), was a work that was so lifelike that Rodin was accused of taking casts from his model, the young soldier Auguste Neyt. 

From antiquity to the end of the 19th century when Rodin was working, with the exception of portrait busts, artists were expected to sculpt the complete human body. Joan Vita Miller and Gary Marotta write, "Rodin was a pioneer in his promotion of the fragment as a complete, independent work of art. Rodin himself concentrated on hands and torsos, but arms, legs, and feet were also prominent among his partial figures (Rodin, The B. Gerald Cantor Collection, (exhibition catalogue), The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1986, p. 131). Rodin scholar John Tancock states that, "A particular impetus to his fascination with the expressive power of hands may well have been given in 1887, however, when he received his copy of Eadweard Muybridge's Animal Locomotion, to which he was one of the original subscribers. In volume seven Muybridge reproduced photographs of hands that were dramatically illuminated and silhouetted against a dark background (see fig. 1). These photographs must surely have convinced Rodin of what he knew intuitively already, namely, that the hand in isolation was capable of expressing an infinite variety of emotions and could, moreover, in its own right, constitute a sculptural statement (J.L. Tancock, op. cit., Philadelphia, 1976, p. 616).

"With the academic tradition still dominant, Rodin's fragments were first criticized as morbid, mutilated, ugly and incomplete – perverse violations of established standards... Some of his contemporaries, however, saw in the fragments a confirmation of his genius, and they celebrated Rodin for the significance of his innovation. Today critics and scholars generally concur that the fragments represent a critical breakthrough, a virtual reassessment of the meaning of art that opened the way for artists to concentrate on essential qualities and unique statements of expression and beauty. Perhaps this is Rodin's greatest legacy and claim to relevance in modern art" (Miller & Marotta, op. cit., p. 131).

Fig. 1 Eadweard Muybridge, Photographs of Hands, Animal Locomotion, 1887