Auguste RODIN (1840-1917 - Lot 63

Auguste RODIN (1840-1917 )Nude Woman Wearing Her Hair, ca. 1890-1896Graphite and watercolor on wove paper. 32 x 25,5 cmProvenance : Maurice Fenaille Collection. By descent. A certificate from Madame Christina Buley-Uribe will be given to the buyer "In the 1890s, after a decade of work on his Gate of Hell and an abundant production of imaginative drawings after Dante, Rodin turned to the direct observation of the female nude . He then made hundreds of drawings of models walking as naturally as possible in his studio, which allowed him to capture "an infinity of gestures never seen, always neglected, and it appeared that the expressive forces that emanated from them were immense." (Rilke). Rodin works without preconceived ideas, exploiting the points of view that the model spontaneously offers. "He asks his models for a kind of animal presence and paradise in movement without the constraint of the pose: "Don't pretend to do your hair; do your hair" he said. Rodin proceeded in two stages: on a notebook page, he first made a quick sketch, without looking at his paper, his eyes always on his model. The result is an "instantaneous" drawing which he uses later as a matrix. In a second phase, he transferred the figure onto thicker quality paper, purifying the lines, simplifying or completing it if necessary, and redefining it with watercolor. The method he invented from the model's free movement allowed him to produce both a vibrant and controlled drawing. Maurice Fenaille (1855-1937), a great collector and patron of Rodin's work, whose drawings he collected very early on, was not mistaken when he acquired this powerful drawing of Femme nue se coiffant. Carefully preserved in the family since then, it has kept all its freshness. In 1897, Fenaille financed the publication of the Album Goupil dit Fenaille, a set of luxury reproductions of Rodin's "black" drawings inspired by the Divine Comedy. It is possible that our drawing is part of the female nudes of Rodin's more recent production. We understand the creative process that led to the creation of our drawing from a first draft kept in the Rodin Museum. It is the reverse side of a sketch of Standing Nude Woman with Untied Hair (H. 23.5 x W. 18.5), the speed of execution of which can be seen, "blindly" (D 2814). Rodin transposed the rather rough drawing of his model doing her hair by refocusing it in a larger sheet of paper in a more or less faithful manner. It is noticeable that the admirable profile of the young woman, already captured in the preparatory drawing, is carefully reproduced in Fenaille's drawing; and the legs cut off by the edge of the sheet (D. 2814 verso) are redrawn as they are in the final drawing, leaving the legs as if unfinished. In the same spirit, the split lines of the arm and belly are executed in the depentimenti manner, which gives the impression of a perfect spontaneity of the artist's gesture, as if it were a quick sketch executed on the spot. The hair, now curly and abundant to the point of reaching the top of the thigh, has become here, along with the pubis, the main subject of the drawing: both are delicately enhanced with a slightly bluish watercolor. It is known that Rodin would not exhibit his drawings until a few years later, making a lasting impression on a whole generation of artists such as Klee, Matisse and Picasso. Let's listen to the Belgian painter Henri Evenepoel, discovering in 1899 a similar drawing at Georges Clemenceau's house, who described it as follows: "I find it very curious! It is quite loose, done with the tip of the pencil: a nude woman bending over, with the stain of hair and genitals brutally indicated in watercolor! For the vulgar it is nothing, but I feel admirable life, flesh. " Christina Buley-Uribe, October 2022