Rodin's rediscovered 'Andromede' sculpture sells at auction
May 31, 2017
Auguste Rodin's long-lost sculpture of the mythical Ethiopian princess "Andromede" smashed predictions when it went under the hammer at a Paris auction on Tuesday.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/G. Bouys
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There had been a lot of excitement when, on the century of Auguste Rodin's death, a long-forgotten sculpture was rediscovered in Madrid earlier this year.
"Andromede was awaiting us," said Stéphane Aubert, associate director of the Paris-based Artcurial auction house that sold the work, of the sculpture unexpectedly turning up in the Spanish capital. "This was the moving and rare emotion we felt when we rediscovered this major work by Rodin, preciously kept in the same family from generation to generation for all these years."
For a long time, all trace of the masterpiece created by Rodin in 1886-87 was lost, even if it was known that the work was gifted to the family of Paris-based Chilean diplomat Carlos Morla Vicuna in 1888.
Vicuna had originally asked his friend Auguste Rodin to produce a portrait of his wife Luisa. Rodin's subsequent marble bust of the young woman was greatly admired after it was exhibited at the Salon National des Beaux Arts, and the French state then asked to acquire the piece. After Vicuna, a patron of the arts, agreed to relinquish the bust, Rodin thanked him by giving him "Andromede."
Rodin at work in a scene from "Rodin," which just screened at the Cannes Film Festival Image: Festival de Cannes
"For 130 years she stayed in this family of diplomats despite the members' different foreign postings," said Bruno Jaubert, Artcurial's director of the impressionist and modern art department, who also helped locate the sculpture in Madrid.
The white marble sculpture shows the Ethiopian princess Andromede, a figure in Greek mythology, naked asleep on a rock. It was one of four pieces created by Rodin on the subject that are held in galleries and private collections around the world.
Andromede was only expected to fetch around 1.2 million euros at the Tuesday auction. Purchased by an unnamed European collector, it went for more than three times that amount, for nearly 3.7 million euros ($4.1 million).
However, the substantial sale price is far eclipsed by the record set last year for a Rodin marble sculpture, "Eternal springtime," which sold for $20.41 million (18.25 million euros) at Sotheby's in New York in May 2016.
100 years of Rodin's sculptures
To mark Rodin's centennial anniversary in France, two exhibitions in Paris featured the sculptor's work, highlighting his impact on contemporary artists.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
'The Thinker,' yesterday and today
Rodin's renowned sculpture depicts the poet Dante, pondering over his latest work. Created by Rodin between 1881 and 1883, the iconic sculpture also had a great influence on 20th century art. Beside it, a sculpture by Georg Baselitz can be seen — although the modern version is outfitted with platform shoes.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Citizens as victims
During the siege of Calais in 1347, British King Edward III is said to have demanded that the city's most respected citizens surrender themselves to free the city. The city in northern France commissioned Rodin to create the monument, "The Burghers of Calais," in 1884. The original bronze cast of the six figures stands in front of the Calais town hall.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Portrayal of passion
"The Kiss," from the 1880s, is one of Rodin's best-known and most popular sculptures. It shows an intimate couple so intertwined that the viewer becomes, as it were, a voyeur. Originally titled "Francesca da Rimini," the sculpture portrays the tragic relationship between Paolo and Francesco at the Gates of Hell (as described in Dante's "Inferno"). Such naked passion broke with taboos of the time.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Celebrating the incomplete
Rodin was a master of depicting incomplete subjects. In his time, presenting fragments of finished sculptures was revolutionary. With this preliminary version of his work "The Walking Man," Rodin opposed the smooth surfaces preferred by art academies in the second half of the 19th century.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Desperation
Four sculptures, four different eras, four different artists: Ossip Zadkine, Georg Kolbe Wilhelm Lehmbruck and Rodin. Each subject stretches its arms as if hit by lightning or anticipating help from God. These pained figures were influenced by Rodin's 1905 sculpture (at right), "The Prodigal Son."
Image: DW/S. Oelze
The persona of Balzac
Rodin was the second sculptor to receive a commission from the writer's association "Societe des Gens de Lettres" to create a monument to honor the great French author, Honore de Balzac. Rodin concentrated on the "shape of the mind," and thus on thought. But the plaster model triggered a scandal in 1898. It wasn't until 1939 that a bronze statue was created and placed at an intersection in Paris.
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Peace and tranquility
Rodin's "Sleep" portrays the beauty of a sleeping woman whose facial features are soft and subtle. She radiates deep peace and tranquility but also solitude. Rodin excelled at expressing such extreme emotions in his works.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Rodin as a role model
Rodin's striking giant bronze figure "The Walking Man" (at right) is surrounded here by works of art that refer to this masterpiece, or have been directly influenced by it. Created in the style of classical Greek or Roman statues, most especially "Venus de Milo," "The Walking Man" shows the decapitated figure of John the Baptist who is also mutilated, with Rodin leaving off his arms.
Image: DW/S. Oelze
Kiefer in dialogue with Rodin
"Auguste Rodin: The Cathedrals of France" is Anselm Kiefer's striking painting, seen here at the Musée Rodin. Pictured are gigantic church towers, which Kiefer created with lead, among other things. Works by Kiefer and Rodin were juxtaposed for the first time at the Grand Palais show. In all their contrasting layers, they combine the search for a new approach to both materials and stories.
