Penseur, petit modèle

细节

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Penseur, petit modèle
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the top of the base); inscribed with foundry mark 'ALEXIS RUDIER. FONDEUR PARIS.' (on the back of the base); with raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the underside)
bronze with black and green patina
Height: 14 7/8 in. (37.8 cm.)
Conceived circa 1880-1881; this bronze version cast in 1930-1940

来源

Private collection, France.
Galerie Bob Benamou, Paris (acquired from the above).
Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière, Paris (acquired from the above).
Acquired from the above by the late owners, 1988.

出版

G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, no. 143 (plaster version illustrated).
H. Martinie, Auguste Rodin, Paris, 1949, no. 19 (another cast illustrated, p. 25).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, pls. 52-53 (another version illustrated).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, no. 11 (another version illustrated).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 111-112, 114 and 116 (another cast illustrated, p. 71, fig. 60).
J. de Caso and P.B. Sanders, Rodin's Sculpture, A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 128-131 (another cast illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, ed., Rodin Rediscovered, Washington, D.C., 1981, pp. 66-67 (another cast illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, California, 1985, pp. 71 and 73-74 (another cast illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin's Thinker and the Dilemmas of Modern Public Sculpture, New Haven, 1985.
C. Lampert, Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings, London, 1986, p. 24 (another version illustrated, p. 25).
A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. II, p. 586 (larger version illustrated).

荣誉呈献

David Kleiweg de Zwaan

dkleiweg@christies.com Tel: + 1 212 636 2093

拍品专文

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 2010-3250B.

Perhaps the most celebrated sculpture of all time, Rodin's Le Penseur was conceived in 1881-1882 to crown his monumental La porte d'Enfer, and belongs to the group of major early works inspired by Michelangelo, whose sculpture had greatly impressed Rodin during his visit to Italy in 1875. The figure was first intended to represent Dante, surrounded by the characters of his Divine Comedy, but soon took on an independent life. Rodin later explained the genesis of his project: "The Thinker has a story. In the days long gone by, I conceived the idea of the Gates of Hell. Before the door, seated on a rock, Dante, thinking of the plan of his poem. Behind him, Ugolino, Francesca, Paolo, all the characters of the Divine Comedy. This project was not realized. Thin, ascetic, Dante separated from the whole naked man, seated upon a rock, his feet drawn under him, his fist at his teeth, he dreams. The fertile thought slowly elaborates itself in the brain. He is no longer dreamer, he is creator" (quoted in A.E. Elsen, op. cit., 1963, p. 53). Having thus transcended Dante's narrative, Le Penseur soon became a universal symbol of reflection and creative genius which has ever since retained its hold on the popular imagination.