European Art

This lot will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Critique de l'Oeuvre sculpté d'Auguste Rodin by Galerie Brame & Lorenceau under the direction of Jerome Le Blay and with the number 1998-39 IB.

Provenance:

Musée Rodin, Paris

Dominion Gallery, Montreal, acquired from the above, September 1964

John Mac Auly, Manitoba, acquired from the above, 1965

By descent to Carol Joan Taylor, Baroness of Portlethen

By gift to Baron Taylor of Portlethen, the Baroness' father

Private Collection, California

MK Fine Art, New York

Literature:

B. Champigneulle, Rodin, London, 1967, no. 107, p. 283 (another cast illustrated, p. 214)

I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 106

L. Goldscheider, Rodin Sculptures, London, 1970, pl. 60, p. 122 (another cast illustrated)

L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, no. 25-2, pp. 222-223 (another cast illustrated)

A. Beaussire, Quand Rodin exposait, Paris, 1988, no. 23, pp. 93, 139, 153, 181, 201, 213, 238, 241, 251, 257, 259, 265-266, 280-281, 322, 326, 334, 339, 348, 366 (another cast illustrated)

M. Laurent, Rodin, Bienne, 1989, p. 150 (another cast illustrated)

R.-M. Paris, Camille Claudel re-trouvée, catalogue raisonné, Paris, 2000, p. 246 (another cast illustrated)

L. Goldscheider, Rodin, London, 2003, pl. 60 (another cast illustrated)

A. Le Normand-Romain, Rodin et le bronze: Catalogue des oeuvres conservées au Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. I, pp. 376-377 (another cast illustrated)

Lot note:

The collaboration between Auguste Rodin and his student, muse, and lover Camille Claudel is well documented. The two artists produced each other’s portraits in the 1880s and Claudel’s famous sculpture (also known as La Destinée or Le Chamine de la Vie) can be interpreted as a physical embodiment of her bereavement at Rodin’s decision to leave her for his ageing, life-long companion, Rose Beuret. Despite their mutual influence, very few models were the direct result of Rodin and Claudel’s artistic collaboration. At the current state of knowledge, the present work, Frère et Soeur is the only work in which Rodin directly collaborated with Claudel, reusing the artist’s model known as La Jeune Fille à la Gerbe, originally conceived in 1887.

Conceived circa 1890-1891, with the present example cast by the Musée Rodin in 1964, the sculpture’s biographical and visual relevance in both Rodin’s and Claudel’s oeuvres is compelling. By 1890, the artists’ relationship was deteriorating, as Rodin decided to return to the faithful Rose Beuret. In his Frère et Soeur, Rodin maintained Claudel’s composition almost entirely, with the position of the figure’s right arm, folded towards her shoulder, and her legs, with knees that converge to hide her modesty. At the same time, Rodin removed the large sheaf of wheat at the back and added a small child to the composition. Claudel originally devised the girl’s soft, angular forms to highlight her youthfulness and pubescence, while Rodin’s small boy appears to try to wriggle away from his sister.