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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 2013-4258B.
Torse de l’Ombre relates to Auguste Rodin’s most monumental work, La Porte de l'Enfer, which was commissioned in 1880 by the French State to adorn a planned new museum of decorative arts. For the project, Rodin conceived of an imposing door, inspired by Dante’s pitiless, allegorical Inferno. On top of the gate, Rodin placed three figures, Les Ombres (shades), later interpreted as embodying Dante’s Inferno famous admonition ‘Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate’ (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here). The group was assembled from three different casts of the same figure, displayed in three successive perspectives.
Torse de l’Ombre was cast from a plaster conceived between 1902 and 1904, which presents, on an enlarged scale, the torso of the single figure used in Les Ombres. In 1901, Henri Lebossé, Rodin’s most trusted assistant, had enlarged the single figure from the group, taking ‘exceptional’ care in his work, as he perceived the figure to be ‘perhaps the most important piece of sculpture of [Rodin’s] career’ (quoted in A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin: Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. II, p. 570). By isolating a fragment of the figure, Torse de l’Ombre throws a new light on the striking pose of Les Ombres, recalling the venerated ruins of Greek and Roman Antiquity. In its contrived, twisted pose, Torse de l’Ombre specifically resonates with the Torse du Belvedère, hinting at Rodin’s challenging relationship with the great tradition of classical sculpture.
Torse de l’Ombre relates to Auguste Rodin’s most monumental work, La Porte de l'Enfer, which was commissioned in 1880 by the French State to adorn a planned new museum of decorative arts. For the project, Rodin conceived of an imposing door, inspired by Dante’s pitiless, allegorical Inferno. On top of the gate, Rodin placed three figures, Les Ombres (shades), later interpreted as embodying Dante’s Inferno famous admonition ‘Lasciate ogni speranza, voi ch’entrate’ (Abandon all hope, ye who enter here). The group was assembled from three different casts of the same figure, displayed in three successive perspectives.
Torse de l’Ombre was cast from a plaster conceived between 1902 and 1904, which presents, on an enlarged scale, the torso of the single figure used in Les Ombres. In 1901, Henri Lebossé, Rodin’s most trusted assistant, had enlarged the single figure from the group, taking ‘exceptional’ care in his work, as he perceived the figure to be ‘perhaps the most important piece of sculpture of [Rodin’s] career’ (quoted in A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin: Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. II, p. 570). By isolating a fragment of the figure, Torse de l’Ombre throws a new light on the striking pose of Les Ombres, recalling the venerated ruins of Greek and Roman Antiquity. In its contrived, twisted pose, Torse de l’Ombre specifically resonates with the Torse du Belvedère, hinting at Rodin’s challenging relationship with the great tradition of classical sculpture.