Auguste RODIN (1840-1917) Femme nue à demi allongée, un pied dans la main (after the drawing known as Mercure), circa 1900 Graphite and watercolor on wove paper. Signed in graphite lower left: "Aug. Rodin". Non-autograph annotation on back: "attaches wings". 32x25cm A certificate of inclusion in the Catalogue raisonné of Auguste Rodin's drawings in preparation by Madame Christina Buley-Uribe, dated June 1, 2024 will be given to the purchaser. Here, Rodin remains faithful to his preparatory sketch, also found in the collections of the Musée Rodin (Mercure, inventory no. D. 828). This is a sketch of a reclining woman turned vertically, which Rodin entitled Mercure, no doubt because the model's gesture of touching her foot evokes Mercury adjusting his sandal. In his watercolor version, Rodin transferred his initial vertically positioned sketch and replaced the title Mercury with his signature. Rodin is at the pinnacle of his art of simplifying lines and unifying color, in a total mastery of purity that artists such as Schiele and Matisse are the direct heirs of.