Gustav Mahler

1909

Auguste Rodin

Sculptor, French, 1840 - 1917

Cast in bronze, this freestanding sculpture shows the head and neck of a man with wavy hair and a deeply lined face. His thick hair appears brushed back from a high forehead. His brows are gathered, his cheeks hollow, and he has a square jawline. The bust stops just below the neck, and the sculpture sits on a maroon-red stone base streaked with white and black.

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G2

Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Gift 1913 to Bruno Walter [1876-1962];[1] by inheritance to his daughter, Lotte Walter Lindt [d. 1970], Breisgau, Germany; her estate; bequest 1972 to NGA.
[1] The original commission for the portrait of Mahler was an idea that arose within the circle of the composer's family and friends in Vienna. The painter Carl Moll, Mahler's father-in-law (Moll was Alma Schindler Mahler's stepfather), played an important part in the effort, and when the original bust was completed he ordered additional casts. The first group of these were sent to him in 1911. The National Gallery cast is one of these, and was acquired from Moll by members of the Vienna Singakademie, including Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, Jacob Wassermann, and Richard Beer-Hofman. They presented the cast to Bruno Walter, who was Mahler's protegé and successor as conductor of the Vienna Hofoper, at the time of Walter's resignation from the opera in 1913. See letter of 16 March 1913, in Lotte Walter-Lindt (ed.), Bruno Walter: Letters 1894-1962, Franfurt-am-Main, 1969: 145.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1981

  • Rodin Rediscovered, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1981-1982, not in cat.

Bibliography

1927

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. Paris, 1927: 103.

1930

  • Clemenceau, Paul. "Gustave Mahler und Rodin." Die Kunstauktion 4, no. 29 (20 July 1930).

1944

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 129.

1976

  • Tancock, John. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Philadelphia, 1976: 552-555.

1980

  • Gutmann, Danièle. "Auguste Rodin: Les Bustes de Gustav Mahler." Mémoire de maîtrise, Paris IV (1980).

1985

  • Gutmann, Danièle. "Histoire d'une commande: les bustes de Mahler par Rodin." Gustav Mahler: Un homme, une oeuvre, une époque. Exh. cat. Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1985: 141-145.

  • Hare, Marion. The Portraiture of Auguste Rodin." Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University, 1985: 565-577.

1986

  • Gutmann, Danièle. "La Sécession et Auguste Rodin." Vienne 1880-1938: L'Aocalypse Joyeuse. Exh. cat. Centre George Pompidou, Paris, 1986: 564-575.

1987

  • Grunfeld, Frederic V. Rodin: A Biography. New York, 1987: 534-537.

1988

  • Beausire, Alain. Quand Rodin Exposait. Paris, 1988: 321-322, 327-330, 332-333, 335, 338, 344, 347-348.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 205, repro.

1996

  • Kausch, Michael. Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft. Exh. cat. Harrach Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1996: 236-238.

2000

  • Butler, Ruth, and Suzanne Glover Lindsay, with Alison Luchs, Douglas Lewis, Cynthia J. Mills, and Jeffrey Weidman. European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2000: 394-399, color repro.

Inscriptions

on proper left side of neck: A. Rodin; on proper right side of neck, in the back, incised by hand in model prior to casting: ALEXIS RUDIER / FONDEUR PARIS; on proper left underside of collarbone in raised letters, integral to cast: A. Rodin

Markings

FM: Alexis Rudier

Wikidata ID

Q63854554

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