Beschreibung:

PROPERTY FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION, AMERICA AUGUSTE RODIN (1840-1917) Le Baiser, 4ème réduction ou petit modèle inscribed 'Rodin' (on the back) and stamped 'A. Rodin' (on the underside) bronze 9 7/8 in (25.8 cm) (height) Conceived in 1886 and cast in 1945 Fußnoten This work will be included in the forthcoming Catalogue Critique de l'Oeuvre Sculptee d'Auguste Rodin currently in preparation by the Galerie Brame & Lorenceau under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay under the archive number 2018-5846B. Provenance Musée Rodin, Paris. Edmond Guérin & Cie, Paris (acquired from the above in May 1948). M.E.H. Meyer, Paris (acquired from the above in May 1948). Private collection, France. Galerie Aittouarès, Paris (acquired by 1993). Elizabeth Mayer Fine Art, New York. Acquired from the above in 1995. Literature I. Jianou & C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, pls. 54-55 (illustration of the marble version). N. Barbier, Marbres de Rodin: Collection du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1987, no. 79 (illustration of the marble version p. 185). K. Varnedoe, A Magnificent Obsession, London, 2001, pl. 83 (illustration of a larger cast n.p). A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of works in the Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, no. S. 2393 (illustration of another cast with incorrect measurements p. 162). Considered one of Rodin's most renowned and timeless works, Le Baiser is one of the most significant representations of all-consuming and undying love. Two lovers wrapped in an erotic embrace, Rodin reinterprets the classical subject matter of forbidden love in an unprecedented three-dimensional visualization. A scene of vitality and dynamism, the distinctive and expressive Le Baiser embodies Rodin's radical approach to sculpture that is unparalleled in Western art. Conceived in 1886 and cast circa 1904, the sculpture at present was cast in bronze by the Alexis Rudier Foundry in 1945 in an edition of 21. Le Baiser originated from the monumental sculptural project The Gates of Hell. In 1880, the French government commissioned Rodin to create a pair of bronze doors for a new national museum of decorative arts in Paris. While the museum never came to materialization and the doors were never officially completed, the project spanned Rodin's artistic career until the end of his life, sparking a feverish and powerful force of creativity within the artist. The Gates of Hell consisted of over two hundred human figures and groups inspired by Dante's La Divina Commedia. Some of Rodin's most famous works, including Le Penseur, Les Trois Ombres, and Le Baiser were conceived as figures for the gates. Modeled in the round and attached to plaster panels within the portal's frames, the works were later removed by Rodin and cast as independent, free-standing pieces. The present work was inspired by Canto V of Dante's Inferno. The story is one of heady emotion—an illicit affair between Francesca da Rimini and her husband's brother, Paolo Malatesta. Francesca, a young woman from Ravenna, Italy, was married Gianciotto Malatesta, Lord of Rimini in 1275. After reading the story of the adulterous love between Guinevere and Lancelot from Knights of the Round Table, Francesca and Paolo realized their love for each other and begin an affair of their own. Rodin captures the dramatic instant right before the passionate kiss in which their lips barely touch. After having discovered the affair, Gianciotto stabbed Paolo and Francesca to death, condemning them to spend an eternity in hell locked in this timeless embrace. While in Dante's story it is Paolo who initiates the kiss, Rodin has changed the narrative in his sculptural depiction. Raising Francesca's body so that it lifts upwards towards Paolo, her right leg crossed over Paolo's left leg, and her arm reaching around Paolo's head, Rodin creates a scene of dynamic and sensual embrace. Caught in surprise, Paolo's body language appears timid, with three fingers cautiously resting on Francesca's left thigh and the book they were reading slipping fro