Rodin_2011

18. Portrait of Man (Previously called Portrait of Octave Mirbeau) (Portrait d’homme)

c. 1893 (?) Graphite pen, stump, watercolor and gouache on watermarked laid paper 18 ¼ x 17 ¼ inches ( 4 6. 4 x 43 . 8 cm) Dedicated and signed with pen and brown ink at the bottom right: In hommage / à Madame Georges Rodenbach / Aug. Rodin. provenance Gift of the artist to Anna Rodenbach ( 18 6 0 – 1945 ), wife of Georges Rodenbach; Collection Kirk Varnedoe; by descent; Private Collection. exhibitions Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art and New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, The Drawings of Rodin , 1972 , no. 71 ; New York, Hirschl & Adler Galleries and Williamstown (Massachusetts), Williams College of Art, Second Williams Alumni Loan Exhibition , 197 6, no. 74 Rodin created the majority of his charcoal drawings during his early years as an artist. These included nude studies and drawings of both antique casts and reproductions of Michelangelo’s sculptures. Around 1893 , Rodin used this same medium for the famous portraits of the journalist Caroline Rémy ( 1855 – 1929 ), known as Séverine. Portrait of a Man , shown here, is the only other known large format charcoal portrait by Rodin. It is unique to find Rodin drawing in this classical style and it is possible that it was done at a similar time as the Séverines. The portrait was dedicated to Anna Rodenbach, the wife of Georges Rodenbach, a Belgian Symbolist poet and novelist. Therefore, the model of this portrait is clearly an important person for the Rodenbachs, and most likely in their inner circle. The model for this portrait strongly resembles the French painter Albert Besnard, who did a portrait of Anna Rodenbach. Albert Besnard and his wife Charlotte Dubray, who made Georges Rodenbach’s funeral sculpture, were very close to the Rodenbach family. However, we have been unable to find written documentation by Rodin or by the Rodenbachs to verify this hypothesis. Up until recently, this portrait was believed to be Octave Mirbeau, the symbolist novelist and Rodin’s close friend. Kirk Varnedoe, the renowned former curator at the Museum of Modern Art, who owned this portrait, never questioned its identity as Mirbeau. An argument in favor of this identification is a letter of the novelist to Paul Hervieu (Custodia Foundation, Paris) where Rodin is mentioned: “(. . . ) I spent charming, delicious hours with him. Then literature A. E. Elsen and J. K. Varnedoe, The Drawings of Rodin , 1972 , p. 83 , illus.