Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) - Lot 113

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) Small head of Man with a Broken Nose Bronze with brown patina Signed "A. Rodin" on the right neck Bears the founder's mark "Alexis. Rudier. Fon- deur Paris" on the left neck. H. 12 cm, on a marble base H. 7.5 cm This work will be included in the Catalogue Critique de l'œuvre Sculpté d'Auguste Rodin currently in preparation at Galerie Brame & Lorenceau under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay under number "2019- 5940B". Related works : - Auguste Rodin, L'Homme au nez cassé, 1875, marble, H. 58 cm, Paris, Musée Rodin, inv. S.00974. - Auguste Rodin, Petite tête de l'Homme au nez cassé, 1882, plaster, H. 13,1 cm, Paris, Musée Rodin, inv. S.00916. Related literature : Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Les bronzes de Rodin, catalog des œuvres au Musée Rodin, Paris, Musée Rodin RMN, 2007, p. 416. L'Homme au nez cassé (Man with a Broken Nose) is an early work by Rodin before he left for Belgium. It is a portrait of an old habitué of the Saint Marcel district, where Rodin had his studio. Probably executed at the end of 1863, Rodin described the work to his friend Bartlett as a pivotal piece that de- fined all his future work: "It is the first good thing I have done (...) I have never succeeded in making a figure as good as the Broken Nose". The small head presented here is later than the 1863 version. More sketchy, more spontaneous, it is also more dramatic. It appears in the tympanum near the Thinker and in the middle of a frieze of small heads on the Porte de l'Enfer. This version does not appear to have been cast in bronze during the artist's lifetime. Our fine proof, cast by the Alexis Rudier foundry, dates from the 1920s/1930s. .