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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 2005-V5598.
Rodin's Buste de jeune femme avec un nud dans les cheveux is a work from the artist's youth that showcases his sculptural virtuosity while looking back to the Eighteenth Century. The influence of the past masters of the previous century came to Rodin through the example of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, who employed him to work in his Brussels atelier between 1871 and 1875. Rodin had already worked for Carrier-Belleuse in Paris and resumed his employment after an interruption caused by the Franco-Prussian war.
The beginning of Rodin's collaboration with Carrier-Belleuse dates to 1866, when the artist took up work for the master sculptor in order to support his new family. That year the seamstress Rose Beure, Rodin's mistress and model, had given birth to his only son. Although Rodin never recognised the child and only married Rose in 1917, a few weeks before her death, the decision to work for Carrier-Belleuse shows his sense of responsibility as a father and companion.
The delicate, coquettish Buste de jeune femme avec un nud dans les cheveux has a similar tender, enamoured air as the terracotta Jeune fille au chapeau fleuri he made circa 1865, now in the Musée Rodin, Paris, that Rodin moulded at the beginning of his relationship with Rose. In this sophisticated marble, however, Rodin immerses the young woman in the style and elegance of the Eighteenth Century, a notion that is underscored by his choice of medium, white marble, a precious material. Rodin's facility in working in a variety of styles and media characterised this period of his activity. These early creations such as Buste de jeune femme avec un noeud dans les cheveux, directly carved and modelled by the artist's hand in contrast to his later work, display the virtuosity of the great sculptor.
Rodin's Buste de jeune femme avec un nud dans les cheveux is a work from the artist's youth that showcases his sculptural virtuosity while looking back to the Eighteenth Century. The influence of the past masters of the previous century came to Rodin through the example of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, who employed him to work in his Brussels atelier between 1871 and 1875. Rodin had already worked for Carrier-Belleuse in Paris and resumed his employment after an interruption caused by the Franco-Prussian war.
The beginning of Rodin's collaboration with Carrier-Belleuse dates to 1866, when the artist took up work for the master sculptor in order to support his new family. That year the seamstress Rose Beure, Rodin's mistress and model, had given birth to his only son. Although Rodin never recognised the child and only married Rose in 1917, a few weeks before her death, the decision to work for Carrier-Belleuse shows his sense of responsibility as a father and companion.
The delicate, coquettish Buste de jeune femme avec un nud dans les cheveux has a similar tender, enamoured air as the terracotta Jeune fille au chapeau fleuri he made circa 1865, now in the Musée Rodin, Paris, that Rodin moulded at the beginning of his relationship with Rose. In this sophisticated marble, however, Rodin immerses the young woman in the style and elegance of the Eighteenth Century, a notion that is underscored by his choice of medium, white marble, a precious material. Rodin's facility in working in a variety of styles and media characterised this period of his activity. These early creations such as Buste de jeune femme avec un noeud dans les cheveux, directly carved and modelled by the artist's hand in contrast to his later work, display the virtuosity of the great sculptor.