Auguste RODIN Balzac, last study for the head Paris... Lot 32

Auguste RODIN Balzac, last study for the head Paris 1840 - Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine 1917 Reference: Head of Balzac, last state, version with the neck cut behind the ear Bronze with black shaded brown patina 18 x 19.6 x 16.5 cm Signed " A. Rodin" in the hair on the right Founder's mark " Georges Rudier / Fondeur Paris " on the left side "by musée Rodin 1958 Inside stamp " A. Rodin Designed in 1897, bronze proof made in 1958 Provenance: Rodin Museum, Paris Private collection, France (acquired in October-November 1958) About: As soon as it was made, this head met with great success: 'What I sold several times was this little thing here. The master then went to a corner of the studio to find a bronze mask of Balzac where, under a powerfully massaged hair, the expressive face of the creative genius is vigorously removed. ("Chez Rodin", Le Petit Bleu de Paris, November 23, 1902). If the current state of knowledge allows us to affirm that numerous bronze proofs have been reproduced from this model, it is unfortunately impossible to determine the precise number. Slight variations can be observed between these different copies, particularly in the cut of the neck, the nervousness of the modelling and, above all, the inclination of the head, which is sometimes raised and sometimes placed directly on a plinth. This bronze, made in 1958, is characteristic of the sand castings made by the Georges Rudier foundry for the Rodin Museum. Rodin's Balzac : On July 6, 1891, the Société des Gens de Lettres, chaired by Emile Zola, commissioned Auguste Rodin to create a monument in honor of Balzac. Anxious to produce a work worthy of this great writer, the artist increased his research into the representation of the body and the head. The multitude of copies made in this context testifies to this. The final version presented in May 1898 was refused by the Société des Gens de Lettres. Devoid of the usual attributes of the writer (armchair, pen, book...), Balzac is represented in a new way. With this revolutionary work, which aroused both admiration and rejection, Auguste Rodin broke with tradition and became a major figure in modern sculpture. Bibliography : - 2007 Le Normand-Romain Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, with the collaboration of Hélène Marraud and Diane Tytgat, introductions by Dr. Ruth Butler and Mr. Régis Cusinberche, Rodin et le bronze. Catalogue des œuvres conservées au musée Rodin, 2 volumes, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, vol. 1, pp. 177, Balzac, dernière étude pour la tête, 1897, this copy is quoted: "Eleven additional copies, between 1944 and 1959, the first four cast by Alexis Rudier [...] then Georges Rudier." - 1998 Le Normand-Romain 1898: Le Balzac de Rodin, exhibition catalogue, edited by Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Paris, Musée Rodin, 1998, pp. 350-351, Balzac, étude définitive pour la tête, 1897, this copy is cited on p. 350, n°99 "Bronzes, fonte Alexis puis Georges Rudier, édition du musée Rodin, dix exemplaires supplémentaires fondus entre 1944 et 1959. Prepared by Anne de Colonges - Trotignon Art historian - Graduate of the Ecole du Louvre