Auguste RODIN (1840-1917).
Woman in Half-Open Pyjamas
1898-1900
Graphite and estompe on wove paper.
Signed in graphite, lower right: A. Rodin.
Height: 32 cm. 32 cm; Width: 17 cm.
On the back of the mounting card, label of the carrier Chenue, 5 rue de la Terrasse. Inscription in pen and ink: "Schoeller".
This work will be included in the Catalogue raisonné of drawings and paintings by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) being prepared by Madame Buley-Uribe under n° 210101. A certificate of inclusion in the catalogue raisonné by Madame Buley-Uribe will be given to the buyer.
This unpublished drawing is part of a series of about twenty sheets showing a model
dressed in a loose garment, ostensibly open, reminiscent of pyjamas, hence the habit
historians have taken to calling them the "pyjama women".
During Rodin's lifetime, in 1901, the watercolour versions of the series were exhibited in London at the Royal Institute Galleries.
at the Royal Institute Galleries in London at the initiative of the Pastel Society.
by the English artist Esther Sutro. She noted for the catalogue the name of the
name of the model: Camilos. It could be "Miss Camillot-Prévost", known as the "little Spanish dancer", and not
dancer", and not Carmen Damedoz as we had suggested in 2006.
in 2006. The naked torso, considered for its own sake, and highlighted by the garment
The nude torso, considered for its own sake, and enhanced by the clothing that frames it, was one of Rodin's favourite themes in the late 1890s.
By showing the entire series in London, Rodin made it possible to focus the viewer's gaze
on this piece of the body, which is revealed in a repetitive and haunting manner.
From a distance, it is in fact the variations on these torsos that impose themselves on the eye. In
In this very beautiful version in graphite and estompe, the delicate rendering of the model's flesh
flesh of the model contrasts with the garment left in reserve. In contrast, in the watercolour versions
versions, Rodin has chosen a deep black that clearly outlines the bust and isolates it.
the bust and isolates it. We know that from 1896 onwards, Rodin adopted a particular technique
which consisted in drawing "blind", without looking at his paper and without taking his eyes off the model
the model posing in front of him. The result was free sketches in graphite pencil, "snapshots
The result was free sketches in graphite pencil, "snapshots", as Roger Marx put it.
This unconventional approach was of great interest to the young American Pictorialists
(see Frank Eugene, Adam and Eve). In turn, this group's approach to photography
with their figures emerging from an atmospheric haze, attracted the artist's
attention of the artist. Rodin offered a drawing in the same vein as our Woman
to the wife of the photographer Edward Steichen, who in turn gave it to Alfred Stieglitz
Alfred Stieglitz, now at the Art Institute of Chicago.
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