L’Éternel Printemps by Auguste Rodin
L’Éternel Printemps by Auguste Rodin
Rodin (1840 – 1917) remains one of the few sculptors widely known outside the visual arts community. To his sculpture he added book illustrations, etchings, and numerous drawings, mostly of female nudes. He revitalised sculpture as an art of personal expression and has been considered one of its greatest portraitists.
MEDIUM: Bronze
DIMENSION: 9.8 ins/ 24.9 cm
SIGNATURE:Inscribed ‘Rodin.’ and stamped with the foundry mark ‘Alexis Rudier Fondeur. Paris.’; stamped with the raised signature ‘A. Rodin’ (on the interior)
Price: £POA.
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Description
L’Éternel printemps, second état, 4ème réduction, dite aussi “no. 2” conceived in 1884; this reduction conceived in 1898 and cast in 1927 by the Alexis Rudier foundry.
Provenance:
Musée Rodin, Paris;
Eugène Rudier, Le Vésinet (acquired from the above);
M Massot-Pellet, France (acquired in 1970);
Sale: Hôtel Drouot Paris, 1 April 1 1975;
Edgardo Acosta, Los Angeles (acquired at the above sale);
Georges Sakelaris, Portland (acquired from the above);
Steve Banks Fine Arts, San Francisco;
Joe R. & Teresa L. Long, Texas (acquired from the above on 16 January 1998);
Biography:
Rodin was born in Paris in 1840 and decided at the age of fourteen to join Petite École, a school of decorative arts in Paris. His repeated rejections from the École des Beaux-Arts, caused Rodin to resort to carving stonework to make a living. In his late thirties he travelled to Italy and saw the works of Michelangelo – which led to his expressive, free personal style of late years.
His reputation as a sculptor developed in 1878 when he exhibited ‘The Age of Bronze’, a life size sculpture of a man. He also completed portraits of Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac for monuments.
By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought mètre Rodin’s work after his World’s Fair exhibit.
When Rodin was 76 years old he gave the French Government the entire collection of his own works and other art objects he had acquired. They occupy the Hotel Biron in Paris – as the Musée Rodin – and are still placed as Rodin set them.