PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF THE LATE GEORGE GREGSON
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Mignon (Portrait of Rose Beuret)

Details
Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Mignon (Portrait of Rose Beuret)
signed 'A. Rodin' (on the left shoulder), stamped with the foundry mark 'Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris', inscribed 'c by Musée Rodin 1970' (on the right shoulder), and with the raised signature 'A. Rodin' (on the inside)
bronze with a black and green patina
16 in. (40.6 cm.) high
Conceived circa 1867-68 and cast in an unnumbered edition of about 20 from 1910 to 1976. The present work cast in 1970
Provenance
Musée Rodin, Paris from whom purchased by the late owner in 1970.
Literature
A. E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 111 (the plaster cast illustrated p. 112).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 84.
R. Descharnes and J-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, London, 1967, p.32 (the plaster cast illustrated p. 33).
J. L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, no. 80, pp. 480-6 (another cast illustrated p. 481).
J. de Caso and P.B. Sanders, Rodin's Sculpture, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 263 & 268 (different versions illustrated p.262 and pp. 264-67).
C. Goldscheider, Auguste Rodin, Catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté, vol. I, 1840-1886, Paris, 1989, no. 36b (different versions illustrated pp. 60-61).

Lot Essay

Mignon was one of the first works for which Rodin's mistress Rose Beuret (1844-1917) modelled. Rodin conceived the portrait bust shortly after meeting her in 1864.

Commenting on Mignon, Albert Elsen has written: "Rodin never made a more frank and informal bust than that of his young mistress...His later, more sedate portraits of elegant society women lack its dashing quality and its sense of intimacy shared by subject and artist. The alert, erect head is framed by the energetic spiralling hair, accentuated and expressive in a way that is rare in Rodin's work" (op. cit.).

Rose Beuret remained Rodin's companion throughout his life, becoming his wife two weeks before she died.

This work is recorded in the Musée Rodin's archives under number 2573 and is sold with a certificate from Mrs Cécile Goldscheider, then director of the Musée Rodin, dated le 27 mai 1970.

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