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Description
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Auguste RODIN (1840-1917)
Iris Awakening a Nymph, circa 1885
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Bronze proof
Sand cast by Alexis Rudier
Signed: Rodin
Relief stamped on the inside: A. Rodin
H. 34.8; W. 37; D. 18 cm
European Private Collection
Made around 1885, the model of Iris Awakening a Nymph entered the collections of Antoni Roux, a discerning and demanding collector who only bought works by Rodin for which the exclusivity of the edition was guaranteed. For the model of Iris Awakening a Nymph, he went directly to the founder René Fulda, who made at least four proofs of the model between 1885 and 1913, the year that Antoni Roux died. Two of those proofs are held in public collections, one in the Rodin Museum in Paris and the other in the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts (USA).
Nonetheless, in the 1930s, the Rodin Museum began casting more of the bronzes, adding eleven proofs to the edition, based on a plaster that Rodin had kept:
—In 1931, Alexis Rudier cast one proof.
—Between 1942 and 1952, Rudier cast another three proofs.
—Between 1952 and 1979, five proofs were cast by Georges Rudier and two by Emile Godard. One of the Georges Rudier proofs is held at the Cantor Arts Center of Stanford University, California (USA), and one of the Emile Godard proofs is in the collection of the Museum of Art in Brooklyn, New York (USA).
In all, fifteen proofs of Iris Awakening a Nymph are known, four of which are in public collections. Four were cast during Rodin’s lifetime, and eleven were cast after his death.
The stamped relief “A. Rodin,” inside the work is a relief that Rudier unsystematically incorporated into all the bronzes that he cast beginning around 1903. Rudier used it, no doubt, as a mark of authenticity in order to distinguish his work from possible counterfeits.
Bibliography:
Antoinette Le Normand Romain, Rodin et le bronze, Catalogue des œuvres conservées au musée Rodin, RMN, Paris, 2007, t.2, p. 33; 458-459.
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