2917 - Auguste Rodin (1840 Paris – 1917 Meudon) after

Auguste Rodin (1840 Paris – 1917 Meudon) after "L'âge d'airain." Original title Bronze, dark patina. Artist's mark; Posthumous, contemporary cast (early 21st century) based on Rodin’s significant nude figure, for which he created the model in 1875–76 and which is considered the beginning of modern sculpture. It marked the breakthrough for the sculptor, who became famous overnight. Rodin began working on “L’âge d’airain” in 1875 while living in Brussels. This figure, which is also one of Rodin’s best-known works, attests to the sculptor’s masterful skill and his attention to living nature, which influenced the pose and the modeling. A young Belgian soldier served as the nude model for this statue, in which the sculptor omitted any attributes that might convey specific meaning. He created a figure whose posture and facial expression allowed for multiple subjective interpretations. Rodin himself fueled speculation about the statue’s meaning: “There are at least four figures in it.” He first exhibited the plaster model in Brussels in 1877 and then, under the title “L’âge d’airain,” at the Salon in Paris, where it caused a scandal due to its striking realism. The sculpture challenged the 19th-century art-loving public, who found the figure too ambivalent: without a historical or mythological allegory, they could not cope with such a direct confrontation with the naked body. Its aesthetic vitality and innovative representation were so far removed from academicism that the sculptor was even accused of having merely made a cast of a living person. It would take another three years before the accusations against Rodin were refuted with the support of prominent fellow artists. In 1880, the sculpture was once again presented at the Salon; the French government purchased the plaster model, and subsequently a first bronze cast was produced, which was installed in the Jardin du Luxembourg in 1884 (and has been in the Musée du Luxembourg since 1890). Height: 178 cm. Original casts are located, among other places, in the Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Musée Rodin in Paris, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. After Auguste Rodin (1840–1917). Dark-patinated bronze. Inscribed “A. Rodin.” Early 21st-century posthumous contemporary cast based on Rodin’s bronze.