Rodin_2011

1. Alsatian Orphan ( Orpheline alsacienne, version à la tête droite) Conceived 1870 ; carved 1870 – 71 White marble on green marble socle Height 11 inches ( 27 . 9 cm) Signed and dated on the edge of the neck: A. Rodin 1870

provenance Private Collection (acquired before 1940 ); thence by descent; sale, Sothebys New York, May 8 , 2008 ; New York Art Market; Private Collection. literature Cécile Goldscheider, Auguste Rodin: Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre sculpté , vol. I, Paris, 1989 , no. 35 (this version), p. 59 ; Albert Elsen, Rodin’s Art: The Rodin Collection, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, Stanford University , New York, 2003 ; Jérôme Le Blay, Catalogue critique de l’oeuvre sculpté d’Auguste Rodin (in preparation), Paris, no. 2008 - 1801 B. First exhibited in 1871 , Alsatian Orphan draws its title from a current, deeply felt event, as France had lost Alsace and Lorrain to Germany in 1870 , during the Franco-Prussian war. Alsatian Orphan was one of the first of Rodin’s sculptures to be accepted for public exhibition, and was one of Rodin’s greatest early successes. The marble head enjoyed great critical acclaim in exhibitions of 1871 and 1872 in both Brussels and Ghent. Rodin also exhibited a terracotta example in Rouen, London, and Saint-Malo in 1882 , 1883 , and 1884 , respectively. Albert Elsen has aptly described the formal and expressive achievement of Alsatian Orphan and its departure from the elaborately decorative heads of this early period: “Unlike Rodin’s commercial, flower-bedecked adolescent girls with their eighteenth-century, Clodion-styled broken silhouettes, the design of Alsatian Orphan is strikingly spare and effective. It is a study in the power of simple forms. The almost egglike simplicity of the young head is contrasted with the big indented forms of the drape. Side views show how Rodin fashioned a beautiful ovular line with the folds of the drape that connect with the spherical forehead and then close at the chin, where the drape begins or ends. Figuratively and literally, the composition was made for marble.” 1 There are two versions of this sculpture. The present work is an example of the tête droit version; here, the head is positioned on a straight axis, which lends the work a sober, stoic air. The other version inclines the head slightly to the side and downward ( tête inclinée ) , as if to represent the child in a sad reverie; it is most likely that Rodin conceived this version somewhat later. The exceedingly fine carving and precise details of the present example of Alsatian Orphan , along with the date incised in the marble itself, strongly suggest that it is one of the very earliest examples of the work.