Mercredi 6 juillet 2011, vente d'un marbre exceptionnel de Rodin @ Cornette de St Cyr à Drouot Montaigne
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
La Faunesse à genoux, pièce majeure en marbre du sculpteurAuguste Robin (1840-1917), sera mise aux enchères lors de la vente dart impressionniste et moderne organisée le mercredi 6 juillet prochain à Drouot Montaigne
Signée et dédicacée sur sa base « Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes ». cette statuette de 55 cm, conçue en 1887 a été exécutée en marbre vers 1890. Elle est emblématique de l’oeuvre la plus célèbre de Rodin, la Porte de l’Enfer. Elle illustre bien la place ambivalente de la femme dans roeuvre du sculpteur, à la fois muse et tentatrice Robin excelle ici dans le rendu sensuel des chairs et la délicatesse de la pose.
La Faunesse à genoux est un parfait exemple du processus créatif de l’artiste une connaissance approfondie de l’antique, renouvelée par des sources d’inspiration moderne, et une volonté de distinguer certaines figures comme des sujets à part entière. La Faunessea ainsi été sculptée sous plusieurs variantes, en marbre et en bronze, rencontrant un succès immédial dés la lin des années 1880.
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
Une vente majeure d’art moderne le 6 juillet prochain à Drouot-Montaigne Rodin, Utrillo, Dominguez, van Dongen
Aux côtés de la belle Faunesse, la maison Cornette de Saint Cyr mettra en vente, le mercredi 6 juillet 2011, des oeuvres d’artistes majeurs de la période moderne une Eglise de village de Maurice Utrillo, huile sur toile datant de 1912-1913, caractéristique des paysages urbains de l’artiste montmartrois , Au spectacle, une aquarelle et fusain sur papier, batée vers 1900, du portraitiste mondain Kees van Dongen ou encore une huile sur toile de 1950 intitulée Tauromachie d’Oscar Dominguez. illustrant la période ‘ cosmique « du peintre surréaliste d’origine espagnole.
Jean et Raoul Dufy, Marie Laurencin, Paul Rebeyrolle et André Masson figurent egalement au catalogue de celte vente, qui sera dirigée par Constance Lemasson. nouvelle directrice du département Art moderne de la maison Cornette de Saint Cyr.
La faunesse à genoux, une pièce majeure de Rodin
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
Figure emblématique dans l’oeuvre de Rodin, la Faunesse à genoux, traduit magistralement la place que tient la femme dans l’imaginaire du sculpteur, à la fois inspiratrice et pécheresse. Au-delà de l’apparence d’une femme s’étirant dans sa nudité et offrant un corps délicat, se cache une créature aux traits carnassiers guetiant les faiblesses de ses proies masculines.
Conçue pour la Porte de lEnfer où elle apparait dans la partie droite du tympan, cette pièce extraordinaire exprime tout le génie de Robin, l’un des plus grands sculpteurs et artistes de l’histoire moderne La Porte de l’Enfer est son oeuvre majeure, son obsession. « le journal de sa vie sculptée « comme il le disait lui-méme En 1880 Rodin reçut de la direction des Beaux-arts la commande d’une porte monumentale destinée au musée des Arts Décoratifs dont l’emplacement retenu à l’époque correspond à celui de l’actuel musée d’Orsay. A partir de cette date, il travailla jusqu’à la fin de sa vie sur cette commande,
Le thème choisi pour la Porte s’inspire de la Divine Comédie de Dante dont Rodin était un grand admirateur. Il s’attèle à cette tâche avec un enthousiasme et une énergie sans limite et se localisera sur la partie sombre de l’oeuvre, l’Enfer Après plusieurs projets, le plâtre de l’ensemble de la Porte est moulé et monté en 1884. En 1885, Rodin fait faire des devis pour la fonte, mais la Porte ne cesse d’évoluer sans programme défini. De façon spontanée, des figures s’y ajoutent. A tel point qu’en 1888, l’artiste n’en montre que des Fragments à l’Exposition Universelle En 1900, elle semble promise au nouveau Palais des Beaux-arts, aujourd’hui Grand Palais, mais le projet n’aboutit pas non plus. Dans l’esprit de Rodin, sa Porte n’est toujours pas achevée
Aujourd’hui, il existe sept épreuves en bronze de la Porte de l’Enfer, toutes sont posthumes, dispersées dans les collections de musées sur plusieurs continents : en Europe (musée Rodin de Paris, Kunsthaus de Zûrich), aux Etats-Unis (University Museum of Art de Stantord, The Robin Museum de Philadelphie) et en Asie (musée national d’Art occidental de Tokyo. Rodin Gallery de Séoul), Il faut ajouter à celles-ci deux épreuves en plâtre celle du musée d’Orsay (1917) et celle du musée Rodin à Meudon (1900), seul exemplaire réalisé du vivant de l’artiste.
La Porte de l’Enfer fut pour Robin une source inépuisable de recherches et d’expérimentations. Les 227 figures qui la composent ont été autant de possibilités de recherches d’attitudes, d’expression de sentiments. Les corps tordus, crispés, tendus accroupis. enlacés, des groupes ou des figures isolées s’enchevêtrent dans une méme masse agitée, pris au piège de leur propre destinée. La force expressive de cette Porte est unique et magistrale. Rodin rend à merveille toutes les passions humaines par le modelage des corps. le rictus des visages et la finesse des peaux dénudées. Certaines de ses figures ont eu leur propre destinée indépendamment de la Porte et ont connu un véritable succès. On pense bien évidemment au Penseur, qui trône au centre du tympan, mais il y a aussi Adam et Eve, le Baiser Ugolin, Les Trois Ombres et la fameuse Faunesse à Genoux.
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
La faunesse, version féminine du faune, est un étre mythologique. Faunes et faunesses sont connus pour leur lubricité, leur amour du vin et de la musique. Le thème est fréquent tout au long de l’histoire des arts. Ils furent maintes fois représentés dans la sculpture hellénistique et romaine mais aussi dans la peinture classique, de Cranach au Tintoret. Les artistes du XXe siècle, tel Picasso, se sont aussi emparés de ce sujet.
Pour Georges Grappe, ancien conservateur du musée Rodin, la Faunesse à genoux appartient aux premières recherches menées pour la Porte de l’Enfer. Le 4 février 1888, elle est visible dans la reproduction du tympan donnée par l’Art Français. Elle fût photographiée par William Elborne en 1887. Le 12 mai 1888, le critique d’art Gustave Geffroy remercie Rodin pour l’exemplaire en bronze de "la faunesse, d’animalités si fine, au rire mortuaire (qui) est devenue l’hôtesse de mon logis, la muse de mon travail". Cependant elle n’apparaît officiellement qu’en 1889. date à lapuelle elle fut à la fois reproduite par Paul Wayland Bartlett (élève de Rodin) et montrée à l’exposition Monet-Rodin, à la galerie Georges Petit sous le litre Satyresse à genoux. Dans la préface du catalogue de cette exposition, Geoffroy la décrit qui "balance comme une fleur un torse maigre et souple, ébauche de ses mains liées derrière sa tète en un geste fébrile de séduction et de raillerie, rit de tout son effrayant visage animal, féminin et mortuaire".
Rodin donne rapidement son indépendance à cette hgure. Elle connut un réel succès sous plusieurs variantes La Faunesse à la tête droite (ici présentée) el au visage presque animalier, la première et plus ancienne probablement celle tète adoucie penchée sur l'épaule droite, l’appui rocheux montant entre les jambes, dite Le Réveil et une troisième version, cheveux plus longs, La Toilette de Vénus. La Faunesse fut fondue en bronze dès 1888 par Griffoul et Lorge, puis par François Rudier. Alexis Rudier fut chargé des fontes à partir de 1917.
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
li existe au moins sept autres versions en marbre de la Faunesse à genoux à en juger par les reçus des praticiens, bien que cette oeuvre soit parfois confondue avec la Toilette de Vénus, une autre interprétation plus mièvre d’une femme agenouillée. Trois versions sont aujourd’hui localisées dans des collections publiques le Santa Barbara Museum of Art de Califomie, le musée des Beaux-arts de Lille et la National Gallery of Art de Washington. La plupart diffère sensiblement par l’attention portée à la taille ou par le traitement de la chevelure formant masse avec les épaules.
D’un point de vue technique, cette pièce est remarquable. Elle dégage â ta fols une grande force et une extrême sensualité. Ce corps magnifique aux muscles saillants, à la peau lisse et velouté offert à l’amour est contredit par le rictus provocateur du visage. Elle traduit bien toute l’ambiguïté du sentiment de Rodin à l’égard des femmes. Il y a de la provocation dans cette oeuvre.
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
Dédicacée au peintre Pierre Puvis de Chavannes (1 824-1898), ami cher et respecté du sculpteur, des étéments de correspondance conservés au musée Rodin nous permettent de conclure que la Faunesse à genoux fit l’objet d’un don de Rodin à son aîné en août 1890. Au-delà de cet hommage conventionnel, cette dédicace au Maître Puvis de Chavannes témoigne d’une vraie sincérité car elle traduit un sentiment profond et véritable. Nous sommes loin des dédicaces commerciales que Rodin put parfois exécuter notamment après 1900.
Les circonstances du don sont encore peu établies. S’agit-il d’un acte de remerciement, d’une marque d’affection ou de reconnaissance, d’un échange d’oeuvres entre les deux artistes, pratique que Rodin appréciait particulièrement? Dans une correspondance entre les deux amis, datant du 11 août 1890, aujourd’hui dans les archives du musée Rodin, Puvis de Chavannes évoque probablement cette pièce et écrit . « Comment vous remercier mon cher Rodin pour ce trop beau souvenir plein de gràce souple et forte d’originalité comme tout ce qui sort de vos puissantes mains».
On perd sa trace par ta suite. Jusque dans les années 1920 où elle reparait dans la collection d’Edmond Lanhoffer, riche industriel, et fin collectionneur d’oeuvres d’arts. Le chef d’oeuvre a été précieusement conservé dans la famille depuis.
« Bien que quelques éléments manquent pour relier l’oeuvre entre Puvis de Chavannes et Edmond Lanhoffer, propriétaire de la pièce dans les années 1920, La Faunesse à genoux est l’un des plus beaux marbres passés sur le marché de l’art dans les 15 dernières années. Elle se distingue des marbres tardifs par la qualité de la pratique et l’attention que Rodin a porté à la réalisation de cette oeuvre offerte à l’un des artistes qu’il respectait le plus. » Jérôme Le Blay, membre fondateur du Comité Rodin. auteur du catalogue critique de l’oeuvre sculpté d’Augusle Rodin.
Auguste Rodin (1840 -1917), Faunesse à genoux. Marbre signé et dédicacé sut la base Au Maître Puvis de Chavannes Conçue en 1887, cette version en marbre exécutee vers 1890. Donnée par Rodin à Puvis de Chavannes probablement en août 1890. Hauteur 55 cm. Estimation 600 000 / 800 000 €. Photo Christian Baraja
Exposition des lots de la vente à Drouot-Montaigne : Samedi 2 et dimanche 3 juillet, de 11h00 à 19h00 - Lundi 4 et mardi 5 juillet, de 10h00 à 20h00 - Mercredi 6 juillet, de 10h00 à 15h00
Vente publique le mercredi 6 juillet 2011 à 20 heures à Drouot-Montaigne
Rodin Sculpture of French Fovelist Honore de Balzac Stolen From Israel Museum
Auguste Rodin, Balzac Nude with Arms Crossed / Study for Balzac Nude / Balzac, etude type C, grand modèle, 1892. Bronze, 127 x 61 x 54.5 cm (50 x 24 x 21.5 in) Signed on base: Rodin; on side of base: Original/no. 1 and Alexis Rudier/Fondeur Paris Billy Rose Collection, Acquired 1966. Image Courtesy of the Israel Museum Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM (AP).- A statue by French sculptor Auguste Rodin was stolen from the Israel Museum during the facility's recently completed renovation, the museum said Wednesday.
The nude bronze of French novelist Honore de Balzac was one of a series of studies Rodin cast for a monument to Balzac on display in Paris. It was donated to the museum in 1966 by the Jewish-American impresario and lyricist Billy Rose.
The museum said the theft was discovered three months ago and immediately reported to police. Police says an investigation is ongoing but would provide no further details.
The statue is 50 inches high by 24 inches wide (127 centimeters high and 61 centimeters wide) and weighs about 140 pounds (about 65 kilograms). It was molded in 1892 and cast posthumously between 1918 and 1926.
Rodin, who lived between the years 1840-1917, is renowned for masterpieces such as "The Thinker" and "The Kiss."
The museum said it could not provide a value for the Balzac piece. But based on Rodin sculptures of similar dimensions put the estimated value of the stolen item at approximately $350,000, according to the Art Loss Register, which specializes in recovering stolen art.
Christopher Marinello, the executive director and general counsel of The Art Loss Register, said it would be very difficult to sell such a high-profile piece of stolen art in the open market without detection.
He said it was most likely that the thieves would move the piece underground, shop it on the black market or ransom it to an insurance company.
"Thieves don't always think about Plan B. If the opportunity arises ... they seize upon the opportunity they have to remove it," he said. "Sadly, many of these bronze items are sold for scrap, as horrific as that may sound." Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
Alexandre Paul Leory (1860 - 1942), La tortue.
Alexandre Paul Leory (1860 - 1942), La tortue.
Epreuve en bronze à patine brun rouge nuancé. Cire perdue de FBL signée et datée «1992». Marque du fondeur «épreuve d’artiste 1/4» et cachet «cire perdue». Haut. : 5,5 cm - Long. : 11 cm. Estimation : 600 / 800 €
SVV Alain Schmitz-Frédéric Laurent commissaires-priseurs. Messieurs Turquin et Pinta Expert : Cabinet Turquin : 01 47 03 48 78. Vente du dimanche 28 novembre 2010 à 14h30 à Saint-Germain-en-Laye. e-mail : contact@sgl-encheres.com
Grand groupe d'Hercule et le Centaure. Italie, XIXe siècle, d'après un modèle de Jean Bologne et Ferdinando Tacca
Grand groupe d'Hercule et le Centaure. Italie, XIXe siècle, d'après un modèle de Jean Bologne et Ferdinando Tacca. photo courtesy Sotheby's .
bronze à patine brun foncé; haut. 66 cm, larg. 51 cm. Estimate 20,000—40,000 EUR. Lot Sold 21,150 EUR
REFERENCES BIBLIOGRAPHIQUES: C. Avery et A. Radcliffe, Giambologna, sculptor to the Medici, 1978, cat. 81-82.
Cat. exp. Les Bronzes de la Couronne, Paris, musée du Louvre, 1999, cat. 227.
M. Leithe-Jasper, "Bronzestatuetten, Plaketten und Gerät der Italienischen Renaissance", Italienische Kleinplastiken, Zeichnungen und Musik der Renaissance, Waffen des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts, 1976, p. 51-244.
NOTE: Ce bronze dérive de l'oeuvre de Jean Bologne (1529-1608) réalisée vers 1576 en argent (haut. 39 cm), et aujourd'hui perdu. Le marbre grandeur nature, sculpté par l'artiste en 1594, est toujours en place dans la Loggia dei Lanzi à Florence. Sujet jouissant d'une postérité universelle, le groupe fut réinterprété par Ferdinando Tacca (1619-1686) et son atelier au milieu du XVIIe siècle en bronze.
En raison de ses dimensions et du visage du demi-dieu penché beaucoup plus nettement en direction de la tête du centaure, la présente pièce se rapproche d'un bronze réalisé au XVIIe siècle, conservé au Kunsthistorisches Museum de Vienne (inv. 6030). Un groupe presque identique à celui ci a été présenté en vente chez Sotheby's à Monaco le 18 juin 1999 (lot 9).
Sotheby's . Mobilier, Orfèvrerie et Tableaux Anciens provenant de l'ancienne collection de Madame Antenor Patiño. 23 Sep 10. Paris www.sothebys.com
"Auguste Rodin: In Association with the Musée Rodin, Paris" @ Coskun, London
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Bacchanale. photo courtesy Coskun
16 x 19 x 16 in (48 x 41 x 41 cm). Edition: 5/8. Materials: Bronze. Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Shizuoka, Prefectural Museum of Art; Séoul, Rodin Gallery; São Paulo, State Picture Gallery
Notes: This group, which is difficult to date accurately, is a perfect example of the assemblages produced by Rodin starting in the second half of the 1880s. The composition consists of a female centaur, whose torso is taken directly from that of his Méditation, and a bacchante, reconstituted from the Torse d’Adèle. These two figures were originally placed at the two ends of the tympanum of La Porte de l’Enfer, and are formally linked by way of a diagonal axis, the curve of the statue of Méditation echoing the arched Torse d’Adèle.
The fantastic centaurs - half-human, half-horse - were an essential element of Dionysian processions; for the Greeks they symbolized bestial appetites. They inspired Rodin early on in his career, and he frequently used them in female form in both sculptures and drawings, playing on the contrast between the human and the animal, the rational and the irrational. This Bacchanale perfectly synthesizes Rodin’s formal study of the female body. He was fascinated by the portrayal of Lesbian couples by artists such as Degas and Rops, and the press referred to him as the "Great Faun."
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Bourgeois de Calais: Jean de Fiennes, Tête, photo courtesy Coskun
30.6 x 30.5 x 29.7 cm (12 x 12 x 12 in) - Edition: II/IV. Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Adelaide, Art Gallery of South Australia
Notes: This head belongs to one of the six Burghers of Calais who chose to sacrifice themselves to save their town. Rodin immortalized their heroism in one of his famous works. A true masterpiece in its universal character and quintessential depiction of human suffering, the monument to the Bourgeois de Calais positions man and his inner world at the center of Rodin’s concerns. The attitudes and latent gestures of each of the figures reflect the working of the faces, making the group a model of expressiveness. Rodin portrayed them as defeated men, in all their humanity and pain.
The inner drama experienced by the burghers of Calais is especially apparent here, rendered through the play of light on the face of Jean de Fiennes. The half-open mouth and deeply sunken eyes skillfully capture a dense shadow, a technique to be repeated some ten years later in the symbolic portrait of Balzac.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Etude pour Polyphème, photo courtesy Coskun
44 x 18 x 15 cm (17 x 7 x 6 in) - Edition: 6/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Stanford University, Cantor Arts Center; San Diego, Museum of Art
Notes: Polyphème was originally one of the countless anonymous figures sculpted to populate La Porte de l’Enfer in the 1880s, where it appeared in the middle of the right-hand leaf. It might have been the example of the Medici Fountain in the Luxembourg Gardens that gave Rodin the idea of combining this little soul with the two slightly modified figures of L’Eternelle Idole to create a new work, Polyphème, Acis et Galatée.
The group illustrates an episode from Ovid's Metamorphoses, the story of the criminal passion of the insanely jealous Cyclops Polyphemus who, braced on one leg, crushes the nymph Galatea and her lover, the young shepherd Acis, under a rock. The figure on its own, enlarged to twice its size by Lebossé, Rodin’s loyal praticien, was to be reused in many assemblages. The original posture of the torso, its legs completely amputated in this Étude pour Polyphème, is still discernible, and although the limbs have disappeared Rodin's synthetic approach has retained the movement. Though described as a study, this work was probably in fact produced after the figure was exhibited to the public, thus emphasizing the importance Rodin gave to all phases of his thinking. “The Beautiful is like a god, a part of Beauty is the whole of Beauty,” he wrote in 1914.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Eustache de Saint-Pierre, tête, dernier état, photo courtesy Coskun
41.5 x 25 x 29.9 cm (16 x 10 x 12 in) - Edition: III/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Calais, Musée des Beaux-Arts; Brooklyn, Museum of Art; Seoul, Rodin Gallery; Los Angeles, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
Notes: In 1347, at the end of a year-long siege, the burghers of Calais handed the keys of the town to the victorious King of England. According to Froissart's chronicles, Eustache de Saint-Pierre was the first to agree to sacrifice his life to the king. The commissioners of the monument to the burghers of Calais had envisaged him as the only one of them to be so honored; he was also the eldest.
After making numerous studies, as was his habit, Rodin portrayed a resigned, worn, gaunt figure. For the face, he turned to his friend, the painter Jean-Charles Cazin. The hair clearly reveals one of Rodin’s favorite working methods, adding little lumps of clay. The rope around the neck frames the noble face like a ruff. Through the tense features Rodin perfectly conveys his contained anguish as Saint-Pierre leads the procession of burghers to their death.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Femme accroupie et Martyre, photo courtesy Coskun
65 x 40 x 35.5 cm (26 x 16 x 14 in) - Edition: 2/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark 6 Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: São Paulo, State Picture Gallery
Notes: This assemblage is composed of two of Rodin's most famous figures: La Martyre, standing upright in this version, and the Femme accroupie with its primitive sensuality. Both figures were originally modelled for La Porte de l’Enfer, where they each appear twice: once they appear together on the tympanum to the right of Le Penseur. Both were favorite figures of Rodin, reused many times.
La Femme accroupie was strongly influenced by Michelangelo; it was displayed on several occasions at the Georges Petit gallery and reappears in several assemblages, including the famous Je suis Belle, which is also in La Porte de l’Enfer. Its spiral composition highlights the contours of the back of his model, Adèle Abbruzzesi. With a slight variation in the position of the leg, it is assembled to La Martyre, a contrasting, angular figure in a state of extreme tension. Curved lines and broken lines echo each other in this exceptionally dynamic assemblage balanced in an extremely precarious position, whose boldness is matched only by its modernist style.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Fils d’Ugolin, Torse, grand modèle, photo courtesy Coskun
66 x 30.1 x 24 cm (26 x 12 x 9 in) - Edition: 3/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark 6 Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: São Paulo, State Picture Gallery
Notes: In La Porte de l’Enfer Rodin depicted the story of the torment of Count Ugolino and his sons, as told in Dante’s Divine Comedy. Imprisoned with his children in the Tower of Hunger in Pisa, he watched them die before starving to death himself. Rodin, who owned a bronze by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux on the same subject, began to think about the story of Ugolino as early as 1876, and decided not to illustrate the first days of Ugolino’s torture, as his predecessors had done, but the last days, portraying him crawling over his dead or dying children.
The disassembled elements of Ugolin took on a life of their own during a period we are inclined to place around 1886. This torso, used for Paolo, also served as the starting point for the male figure of Fugit Amor and as the handle on the side of a ceramic vase, before undergoing other variations and interpretations. Enlarged by Lebossé, the Torse du fils d’Ugolin, with its legs and arms boldly truncated, rises like a totem, an abstraction, witness to the long formal path down which Rodin travelled: "a part of beauty is the whole of beauty."
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Giganti, photo courtesy Coskun
61.2 x 18.2 x 16.2 cm (24 x 7 x 6 in) - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark 6 Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: If the model has been correctly identified, this work provides extremely interesting evidence of the close relationship between Camille Claudel and Rodin around 1885. Both of them, along with Jessie Lipscomb, an English sculptor who was a friend of Camille, used the same Neapolitan model, nicknamed Giganti, whose name and address Rodin recorded in one of his notebooks. Rodin was the only one of the three to sculpt the whole figure, before breaking it up and separating the torso and the head.
This figure survives without the arms and part of the left leg. A theory has been proposed that this was a study for Saint-Jean-Baptiste, but this is unlikely given that the movement in Giganti is purely latent, bringing it closer to the numerous nude studies that Rodin was in the habit of constantly reworking, especially for La Porte de l’Enfer. Reflecting the interest shown by Rodin in the architecture of the human body, its violent fragmentation in no way undermines its tranquil balance, a quality that Rodin also admired in Greek sculpture.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Giganti, Tête, photo courtesy Coskun
9 x 8 x 8.3 cm (4 x 3 x 3 in) - Edition: II/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark 6 Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: If the model has been correctly identified, this work provides extremely interesting evidence of the close relationship between Camille Claudel and Rodin around 1885. Both of them, along with Jessie Lipscomb, an English sculptor who was a friend of Camille, used the same Neapolitan model, nicknamed Giganti, whose name and address Rodin recorded in one of his notebooks. Rodin was the only one of the three to sculpt the whole figure, before breaking it up and separating the torso and the head.
The intensely dramatic expression and deeply sunken eyes are comparable to the faces on the frieze on the tympanum of La Porte de l’Enfer. The planes of the face are clearly defined, without any alterations or superfluous details, the hair sketchily indicated, the half-open mouth in a faint grimace. This is an image of suffering that has something universal in it. It illustrates the extent of Rodin's study of the expression of feelings.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Homme Qui Marche Sur Colonne, photo courtesy Coskun
354 x 60 x 39 cm (139 x 24 x 15 in) - Edition: 5/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: This work is the result of an assemblage of two studies for Saint-Jean-Baptiste, probably made towards the end of the 1870s: a study of a torso and a pair of legs. Rodin did not hesitate to retain the fissures and cracks of the torso, as well as the very disparate modeling of the two elements, which do not hamper the completion of the work but rather help to understand its genesis.
The walking movement is not reproduced – both feet are on the ground – but merely suggested to the viewer. The work's fragmentary character gives it a universal quality. It was the internal dynamics of the human body, perceived as a “walking temple, architecture in motion,” that interested Rodin and made this work famous. Yet it was only belatedly, at the Salon of 1907, that it took the name of L'Homme qui marche. Assembling the sculpture to a tall column, a solution Rodin selected for the Pavillon de l'Alma exhibition of 1900, considerably modified the spectator's viewing angle, since a direct frontal view of the work was no longer available. The choice of a Corinthian capital adds an antique connotation to the fragmentary state of this extremely innovative sculpture. In this way Rodin doubly added a fourth dimension, that of time, to the work.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Jean de Fiennes vêtu, deuxième maquette, photo courtesy Coskun
71 x 37.5 x 27 cm (28 x 15 x 11 in) - Edition: II/IV - Materials: Bronzev - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Stanford University, Cantor Arts Center
Notes: In 1347, at the end of a year-long siege, the burghers of Calais handed the keys of the town to the victorious King of England. According to Froissart's chronicles, Eustache de Saint-Pierre was the first to agree to sacrifice his life to the king, and he was the only figure proposed in the official commission of January 1885. Rodin decided to add five other figures. The despairing attitudes of the figures in the second maquette, submitted in August 1885, began to arouse reservations on the part of the members of the committee responsible for the monument, as they wanted to see them “going to their deaths not as criminals … but as bourgeois martyrs.”
Jean de Fiennes, the youngest of the condemned men, his head turned away and his arms truncated, already displays a hint of the gesture of resignation to be seen in the final version of the monument. Following his usual working methods, Rodin first worked on a nude figure before clothing it in a tunic with vertical pleats reminiscent of Gothic statuary. Far from being merely anecdotal or superfluous, Jean de Fiennes' simple gesture, already discernible in this study, turns him into a symbol of youth sacrificing itself in an act of heroism.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), L’Ombre, Tête, petit modèle, photo courtesy Coskun
37.6 x 28.4 x 32.5 cm (15 x 11 x 13 in) - Edition: 5/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Los Angeles, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation; Shizuoka, Prefectural Museum of Art
Notes: This head belongs to one of Rodin’s most famous figures, created around 1880 and used three times to adorn La Porte de l’Enfer, thus inaugurating a bold technique of repetition. The suffering figure of L’Ombre, enlarged by Lebossé in 1901, was profoundly influenced in its overall form by Michelangelo. The face has even been compared with that of the Rebellious Slave in the Louvre, of which Rodin owned a photograph. The features of L’Ombre are those of a damned soul whose suffering is evident. The highly geometrical composition, with the astonishingly perpendicular lines of the profile, makes the head of L’Ombre an ultimate expression of suffering. It is inclined almost horizontally over the contorted body, forming a kind of architrave when three figures are grouped together.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), La Création, photo courtesy Coskun
20 x 25.5 x 11 cm (8 x 10 x 4 in) - Edition: 3/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: During the 1890s Rodin repeatedly made use of assemblages to compose his groups, some of which, including this one, were never exhibited. Creation, a recurring theme in his oeuvre, is not treated here by way of the image of the artist as a creator, as it is in La Main de Dieu, for example. In this work, a divine being shelters the first couple, in an exceptionally dynamic assemblage composed of nearly perpendicular lines which visually initiate the inner movement of the figures seeking to detach themselves from their creator.
These three figures were originally modelled for La Porte de l’Enfer, although in the end the only ones who appear there are the two small figures arranged face to face to form the famous group, L’Eternelle Idole. The Creator no doubt started out as a damned soul, his violently twisted body reminiscent of the ignudi of the Sistine Chapel. This was one of Rodin's favorite figures, used in a number of assemblages.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), La Femme accroupie, grand modèle, photo courtesy Coskun
34 x 24 x 20 in (61 x 86 x 51 cm) - Edition: IV/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Munich, Neue Pinokothek; Essen, Folkwang Museum; Philadelphia, Rodin Museum
Notes: Traditionally dated to 1881-1882, La Femme accroupie was one of the figures modelled at a very early stage for La Porte de l'Enfer, in which she appears twice. She can be seen on the right pilaster, together with L'Homme qui tombe, forming the group Je suis belle, and again on the right of Le Penseur, slightly modified so as to be assembled to a variation of La Martyre.
This figure reveals the influence of Michelangelo and has been compared to his Crouching Boy (in the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), which Rodin may have known through a reproduction. A powerful impression of sensuality emerges from this hunched-over figure. The back is a splendid example of anatomy, reflecting all the vigor and attention to living nature that is so typical of Rodin. Breaking away from the Renaissance tradition, the sculpture of a human figure no longer needs a justficaction other than its own expressiveness. Rodin frequently returned to this figure and reused it in several assemblages, presenting it at several exhibitions around the turn of the century. It was around 1900 that he decided to have it enlarged; the first large-scale bronze, exhibited at the Salon d'Automne of 1909, was acquired by the French state.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), La Nuit, Épreuve Double, photo courtesy Coskun
26 x 13.5 x 17.2 cm (10 x 5 x 7 in) - Edition: II/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Los Angeles, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
Notes: La Nuit is one of a pair of colossal figures that, with Le Jour, were intended to guard the entrance to the staircase of the Tour du Travail. Its pose is relatively static, appropriately for a monumental work, and barely disrupted by a movement of the hands towards the hair. In these two identical forms, juxtaposed but with the second somewhat displaced from the position of the first, the continuity of the slight movement of the arms becomes almost visible.
Looking at this work, one cannot forget Rodin's sketched studies of movement, in which he used both the front and back of the same sheet of paper to outline the course of a gesture. Due to the horizontal position of the arms, which now displace the weight forward, the balance of La Nuit has become precarious.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Muse Whistler, Étude pour le monument (type C), photo courtesy Coskun
65.5 x 33 x 34 cm (26 x 13 x 13 in) - Edition: II/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: Stanford University, Cantor Arts Center; Los Angeles, Cantor Foundation; Sydney, Art Gallery of New South Wales; São Paulo, State Picture Gallery
Notes: La Muse Whistler, which was intended as part of the monument dedicated to the memory of the painter James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903), was the last monument sculpted by Rodin. Never completed, it was rejected by the memorial committee and ended in failure. The young Gwen John posed for the allegory, which depicts a muse climbing the mountain of glory, symbolizing the difficulties Whistler encountered throughout his career.
This figure opens the way to a new conception of the public monument, which until then had been oriented around the portrait of the honored individual. Geffroy promptly asserted that "This is one of those great pieces of truth through which Rodin pursues his constant study of the aspects and movements of life. Here the result equals the greatness of the Greeks: it displays the same fullness, the same living energy in its contours. I hear people complaining about the absence of arms, of course, and I would like to be able to complain as well. But rather than complain about what is not there, let us be allowed to admire what is there: a masterpiece, a great masterpiece."
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Saint-Jean-Baptiste, tête colossale, photo courtesy Coskun
55.4 x 50 x 37 cm (22 x 20 x 15 in) - Edition: IV/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: Saint-Jean-Baptiste preaching was one of the first of Rodin's figures presented at the Salon, in plaster in 1880 and then in bronze in 1881. Inspired by the unannounced arrival in his studio of Pignatelli, a peasant from the Abruzzi whom Rodin compared to “a wild beast … a wolf,” this work illustrates his decision to take advantage of the model's appearance to represent his John the Baptist as a wild, ecstatic being, with a realism that unleashed critical disapproval.
Updating traditional iconography by allowing chance to decide the model's pose, Rodin transformed his Saint-Jean-Baptiste into a walker. It was enlarged after 1900 (at the same time, in fact, as L’Homme qui marche), and the oversized head presented here, whose modelling remains close to the bronzes of Italian Renaissance masters like Donatello, reveals a remarkably vigorous expression. It perfectly illustrates the reasons for Rodin's choice: “This coarse, hairy man expressed in his gait, in his features, in his physical strength, all the violence but also all the mystical character of his race. I immediately thought of a Saint John the Baptist.”
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Sphinge Sur Colonne, photo courtesy Coskun
93.4 x 16 x 22.3 cm (37 x 6 x 9 in) - Edition: II/IV - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Other casts: London, Victoria & Albert Museum; Los Angeles, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation; Gonzaga University, Washington, on loan to Jundt Art Museum
Notes: This small female nude with its questioning attitude first appears on the right-hand leaf of La Porte de l’Enfer. It was displayed for the first time in 1990 at the Georges Petit gallery, as a pendant to Le Succube. However, Rodin seems to have taken a particular interest in the figure after the exhibition at the Pavillon de l'Alma, and subsequently used it alone in several assemblages. He was particularly pleased with the way it was shown on a small fluted column at this exhibition, and gave a plaster copy to the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Lyon in 1903, then another in bronze to Arthur Symons (Tate Gallery, London). A product of Rodin’s research on the presentation and orientation of his exhibited works, La Sphinge sur colonne was the first work he reproduced together with its pedestal in bronze, giving the whole ensemble the status of an artwork.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Torse de l’Adolescent désespéré et Torse de la Centauresse, photo courtesy Coskun
31.2 x 24 x 13 cm (12 x 9 x 5 in) - Edition: 4/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: The Torse de la Centauresse is an incomplete figure which Rodin clearly valued highly, since he used it in numerous assemblages. The female torso with outstretched, slightly disproportionate arms, holding the head of La Douleur, was originally assembled with the horse from the Maquette du monument au général Lynch to become a female centaur, and sculpted in marble in 1901. But the removal of the arms concentrated all the energy of the form into a powerful single line, carried through to the backward tilted head, and it is in this attitude that Rodin combined it with other torsos such as that of the Etude pour Iris or, as here, the Adolescent désespéré. This figure, which appears on the right-hand leaf of La Porte de l’Enfer, lost the arms reaching towards heaven in a tragic gesture of supplication when Rodin combined it in several other assemblages.
Here, the Torse de la Centauresse, positioned diagonally against the Adolescent désespéré to form a remarkably dynamic triangular composition, reinforces the tension emanating his arched body by adding an effect of imbalance. The figures have become merely a pretext for a study in purity of line.
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Torse de l'Ombre, photo courtesy Coskun
100.5 x 73 x 49 cm (40 x 29 x 19 in) - Edition: 5/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark - Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: This torso belongs to one of Rodin’s most famous figures, L'Ombre, created around 1880 and used three times to adorn La Porte de l’Enfer, thus inaugurating a bold technique of repetition. The influence of Michelangelo is obvious.
L'Ombre, the outcome of a study for Adam, is one of the figures whose most significant fragments were preserved by Rodin, no doubt when Henri Lebossé, his most loyal praticien, enlarged it in 1901. Among the fragments is this torso, cut off at the base of the neck, the shoulders and the thighs, and infused with a tension that betrays its author's determination to equal the most famous classical models, including the Apollo Belvedere torso. Lebossé paid meticulous attention to the process of enlarging it, telling Rodin outright that it would “probably be the most important piece of sculpture in [his] work.” This fragment, carefully preserved by Rodin as was his custom, is a fine example of the energy and efficiency of a form reduced to essentials. Constructed on diagonals, the movement of the legs opposes that of the shoulders, intensifying its power as if to illustrate a comment Rodin made in 1914: "The Beautiful is like a god, a part of Beauty is the whole of Beauty.”
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Ugolin dit de la Porte, photo courtesy Coskun
41 x 61.5 x 41 cm (16 x 24 x 16 in) - Edition: 1/8 - Materials: Bronze - Markings: Inscribed A. Rodin, © by Musée Rodin, numbered, dated and stamped with foundry mark _ Contact Gallery for Price
Notes: In La Porte de l’Enfer, Rodin portrayed the story of the torments suffered by Count Ugolino, as related in Dante’s Divine Comedy. When he was captured in February 1289 by the citizens of Pisa, after changing sides several times during the struggle between the Guelphs and Ghibellines, he was imprisoned with his children in the Tower of Hunger in Pisa, where he was forced to watch them die before he devoured them. Rodin, who owned a bronze by Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux on the same subject, started to think about the story of Ugolino in 1876. He decided to illustrate not the first days of his torments, as his predecessors had done, but the end, portraying Ugolino crawling over his children, ready to devour them.
In its original dimensions the group was, as planned, incorporated into La Porte de l’Enfer in a symmetrical position to Le Baiser, to function as its counterpoint, extreme happiness balanced by extreme unhappiness. But in 1886, Paolo et Francesca were removed from the Porte, and Ugolin was transferred from the right-hand leaf to the left-hand one. The piece began its independent career in 1887 when it was exhibited as a bronze in Brussels. It was only after the Exhibition of 1900 that Rodin decided to have it enlarged.
Installation View. photo courtesy Coskun
Installation View
Installation View. photo courtesy Coskun
Installation View. photo courtesy Coskun
Installation View. photo courtesy Coskun
Installation View. photo courtesy Coskun
Installation View. photo courtesy Coskun
Contemporary masters. Based in Knightsbridge, London, Coskun Fine Art is London’s leading dealer in works by Andy Warhol, carrying a large inventory of unique and editioned prints, drawings and works on canvas. The gallery inventory includes pieces from names such as Picasso, Lichtenstein, Hockney and Freud with a particular focus on sculpture by Auguste Rodin as the gallery is the United Kingdom representative of the Musée Rodin, Paris.
Coskun Fine Art has an international reputation for acquiring works of art by the leading artists of the 20th century in the best possible condition: a key factor when dealing with works on paper in particular. In the decade that we have been in business, we have developed a worldwide client base of institutions, corporate collections and private individuals, through our pursuit of the very best, by the best and through our close attention to our clients’ needs.
Sept 24 - Nov 2, 2010. Coskun. 91-93 Walton Street, London, SW3 2HP United Kingdom. info@coskunfineart.com - www.coskunfineart.com
Antoine Louis Barye (1795-1875) Tigre qui marche.
Antoine Louis Barye (1795-1875) "Tigre qui marche sur plinthe". photo Galateau
Pendant du "Lion qui marche, sur plinthe", bronze à patine brun vert richement nuancé, épreuve authentique signée "Barye", fonte et édition ancienne de "F. Barbedienne Fondeur" H. 21 x L. 42,3 x P. 10,3 cm Estimation : 5 000/6 000€
Étude Galateau SVV. Limoges, dimanche 4 juillet. Tél. : 05.55.34.33.31. Fax : 05.55.32.59.65. Email : galateau@interencheres.com
Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875), Tortue
Antoine-Louis Barye (1795-1875), Tortue
Épreuve en bronze à patine brun vert nuancé. Fonte d’édition ancienne signée sous le sujet. (Petit manque à la queue). Long. : 10 cm. Estimation : 1200 / 1500 €
Alain Schmitz-Frédéric Laurent SVV. Dimanche 27 juin 2010 à 14h30. Tél. : 01 39 73 95 64 - Fax : 01 39 73 03 14 - E-mail : contact@sgl-encheres.com
Sotheby's to Sell Rare 19th Century Sculptures Recently Discovered in Ireland
Die Spinnerin by Rudolf Schadow. Estimate: £120,000-180,000. Photo: Sotheby's.
LONDON.- On Thursday, 8th July 2010, in a sale of European Sculpture and Works of Art, Sotheby’s London will offer three sculptures recently discovered in Ireland. When Sotheby’s Sculpture specialist Erik Bijzet first cast his eye over the photographs of the sculptures that had been brought into Sotheby’s Dublin office, he was immediately struck by their intrinsic quality and importance. Created in nineteenth-century Rome, the works are seminal examples of Neo-classical sculpture and provide a rare occasion to acquire fresh to the market pieces in mint condition. Comprising Die Spinnerin by Rudolf Schadow and Venus Italica and Hebe from the Workshop of Antonio Canova, the marble sculptures were found in their original location in Annaghmore House, Tullamore, Offaly. Their history includes an Irish commission, the Grand Tour, and Rome’s flourishing artistic community at the centre of it all.
Undoubtedly, the highlight of the group is an exceptional sculpture by the Northern artist Rudolf Schadow (German, 1786-1822) entitled Die Spinnerin, estimated at £120,000-180,000. The marble is considered to be the artist’s breakthrough achievement and the work with which his reputation rests. Schadow had arrived in Rome in 1812 to fully absorb the legacy of sculpture from classical antiquity and work with the master Antonio Canova. King Frederick William of Prussia would have provided financial support to this end, and his patronage made possible Schadow’s success in Rome.
The sculpture of a young girl spinning was first conceived in 1816 and Schadow went on to produce versions for such eminent patrons as the Prussian King, Prince Nikolaus II Esterházy of Hungary, Prince Ludwig of Bavaria, Baron von Lebzelter, and the Duke of Devonshire. The Irish Grand tourist Henry Patten was one of many who followed the fashionable example set by the wealthy as they toured Europe, commissioning while on their travels works of art from artists residing abroad. Patten commissioned the present work in 1819 for his house in Westport, County Mayo and Schadow made several references to it during the spring of that year. There is a dedication to Patten on the marble, identical to that on its pendant, a Sandelbinderin, ordered by Patten at the same time and sold at Sotheby’s in London on 12th June 1986.
Talking about the emergence of the sculptures, Erik Bijzet said: “I am thrilled Sotheby’s has the opportunity to offer these fantastic finds. That the sculptures are in perfect condition and virtually untouched is particularly gratifying. The literary references to Schadow’s commission for Patten and the sculptor’s evident delight in its progress as he carved, substantiates the importance he attached to this version of the work. The addition of this piece to all the extant examples is a wondrous find and an exciting new chapter in the story of a work of art. It will allow scholars and collectors alike the chance to look anew at Schadow’s masterpiece. It is also rare for examples from Canova’s workshop, made during the sculptor’s lifetime, to come on to the market, and these two discoveries complement each other beautifully.”
The two remaining sculptures to emerge from the house are a pair of marble statues, Venus Italica and Hebe, from the Workshop of Antonio Canova (1757-1822). They were carved during Canova’s lifetime, circa 1820, a year following Patten’s commission from Schadow. Estimated at £60,000-80,000, the marble statues were taken from two of Canova’s most famous models. Canova combined idealism with subtle eroticism in the depictions of Hebe, the goddess of youth and cupbearer to the deities of Mount Olympus, and Venus Italica. They exhibit some particularly fine carving; indeed, Canova’s highly skilled studio assistants who produced reproductions of his sculptures went on to become well-known sculptors in their own right.
The two remaining sculptures to emerge from the house are a pair of marble statues, Venus Italica (left) and Hebe (right), from the Workshop of Antonio Canova (1757-1822). Photo: Sotheby's.
Edwin Whitney Smith, statue; Éric Hebborn, buste d'homme; grandes statuettes d'éphèbe nu & représentant l'Antinoüs du Capitole
Edwin Whitney Smith (1880-1952) Statue en bronze patiné représentant un danseur nu. Signée et datée 1929.
Hauteur : 112 cm - Estimation : 1 500 / 2 000 €
Éric Hebborn (Londres, 1934/Rome, 1996) Grand buste d'homme en bronze patiné.
Hauteur : 59 cm. Socle en pierre - Estimation : 1 000 / 1 200 €
Grande statuette d'éphèbe nu en bronze patiné sur une base ronde à palmettes, d'après l'Antique. Fonte napolitaine du XIXe siècle.
Hauteur : 65 cm - Estimation : 800 / 1 200 €
Grande statuette représentant l'Antinoüs du Capitole en bronze patiné sur un socle rectangulaire, d'après l'Antique.
Hauteur : 69 cm - Estimation : 800 / 1 200 €
Beaussant-Lefèvre - Paris. Peintures & Arts Graphiques. Vente du Mercredi 27 janvier 2010. Drouot Richelieu - Salle 13 - 9, rue Drouot - 75009 Paris. Pour tout renseignement, veuillez contacter la maison de ventes au 01 47 70 40 00
Joseph Marie Thomas Lambeaux dit JeF (1852-1908) : « Prométhée »
Joseph Marie Thomas Lambeaux dit JeF (1852-1908) : « Prométhée »
Statue en bronze à patine verte. Fondeur : J.Petermann Bruxelles. H. 138 cm, envergure 96 cm. Adjugé 18 500€
Dimanche 15 novembre – de Vregille & Bizouard, Dijon
Jef (Joseph Marie Thomas) Lambeaux, (14 janvier 1852, Anvers - 5 juin 1908, Bruxelles) est un sculpteur belge. Il a étudié à l'académie des Beaux-Arts d'Anvers. Il a notamment réalisé Le Faune Mordu montré lors des Expositions universelles de Bruxelles (1897) et Paris (1900) mais qui fut le centre d'une polémique sur les nus à l'Exposition universelle de 1905 à Liège où elle fut recouverte d'un voile. Une autre œuvre majeure : les Passions Humaines (1886), un bas relief de marbre qui a été intégré dans le pavillon de Victor Horta du Parc du Cinquantenaire, pour laquelle il a reçu une médaille d’honneur lors de l’exposition universelle à Paris en 1900. Le Pavillon des passions humaines, est l’une des premières constructions de Victor Horta, construit spécialement en 1899 dans un style classique pour abriter le bas relief monumental de Jef Lambeaux, qui évoque les plaisirs et malheurs de l’humanité. Trois jours après l’ouverture, l’œuvre osée pour l’époque qui représente des corps enlacés provoque un véritable scandale moral. Le pavillon ouvert derrière les colonnes de façade est muré et fermé par une porte de métal. Il le restera longtemps. Aujourd'hui, il fait partie des Musées royaux d'art et d'histoire. Il a été nommé membre de l’Académie royale de Belgique en 1903. Depuis 1899, le relief des Passions humaines a fait l’objet d’éloges et de critiques. Il est cité comme membre de la franc-maçonnerie. (Merci Wiki)
