Auguste Rodin

Musée Rodin, Paris
Bruton Gallery, Somerset & Valentien Gallery, Stuttgart(acquired from the above in March 1982)
Private Collection, Germany 
Private Collection, Tokyo (acquired in 1983)

Bernard Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, no. 91, illustration of the plaster p. 182
Robert Descharnes & Jean-François Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, illustration of the plaster p. 170
Ionel Jianou & Cecile Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, illustration of another cast p. 105
John Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin , Philadelphia, 1976, illustration of the plaster p. 438
Albert Elsen, Rodin's Art: The Rodin Collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, New York, 2003, no. 103, illustration of another cast p. 394
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, vol. 1, Paris, 2007, illustration of another cast p. 171

Green and brown patina. Surface is highly textured and very well maintained. Minor patina rubbing around figure's head and hood, also on right knuckles and right shoulder, otherwise work is in excellent condition.
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Following the commission by the Société des Gens de Lettres in 1891 to execute a monument to Balzac, Rodin embarked on a seven-year period of intensive contemplation of the life of this prolific writer. In order to grasp the essential character of his subject, Rodin threw himself into a campaign of research, consulting texts by and about the author, as well as earlier portraits by other artists. As Athena Tacha Spear has written, "He read all of Balzac's novels and biographies; he looked at many of the portraits made during the writer's lifetime; he traveled often around Tours, Balzac's homeland, to study the physiognomy of the people and the nature of that region; he even obtained the proportions of Balzac's body from his tailor and thus was able to employ for the studies of the figure the appropriate models" (Athena Tacha Spear, Rodin Sculpture, Cleveland, 1967, pp. 9-10).

During the gestation of this great project, Rodin's approach shifted from a naturalistic rendering of Balzac towards a more dynamic expression of the novelist, aimed at capturing the intensity and intellectual gravitas of his character. By 1896, Rodin was creating studies that bore no relationship to the physical form of Balzac, as had been the case in earlier versions. As Athena Tacha Spear has noted, "[Late] head studies show Balzac[...] at a mature age but long-haired. The modeling is becoming more and more arbitrary, with deeply hollowed eyes, exaggerated projections of the eyebrows and moustache, agitated planes and profuse skin roughness" (Athena Tacha Spear, Rodin Sculpture, Cleveland, 1967, pp. 22-23). The expressive rendering of Balzac's head, crowned with a mane of hair and thrown back in contemplation, reflects his fiery genius, while the large Dominican robe, which was the writer's favorite working attire, conceals the rest of his body and creates a massive and commanding presence.

The radical nature of Rodin's final interpretation caused uproar when it was exhibited at the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in 1898. Rodin was deeply wounded by the public outcry but also scornful of the petty nature of much of the criticism. The Société des Gens de Lettres did not accept the sculpture, and Rodin arranged for its return to his studio at Meudon, where it was later recorded in Edward Steichen's memorable photographs of Monument to Balzac in the Moonlight. Despite the public outcry surrounding the work, Rodin himself considered it to be the pinnacle of his artistic achievement; according to Albert Elsen, "The artist himself regarded this as his most important and daring work, `the sum of my whole life, result of a whole lifetime of effort, the mainspring of my aesthetic theory. From the day of its conception, I was a changed man' '' (Albert E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 89).