The Age of Bronze (L'Age d'Airain)

model 1875-1876, cast 1903-1904

Auguste Rodin

Sculptor, French, 1840 - 1917

This free-standing, bronze sculpture shows a nude, muscular, young man standing with his right hand, to our left, raised to the top of his head. In this photograph, his body faces us but his head turns slightly to our left toward the raised hand. He stands on a square base with his feet together and his right knee, on our left, slightly bent. That arm is raised in front of him with the elbow bent back so his hand grasps his short hair. His eyes and full mouth are closed. His other arm is also bent at the elbow at his side so that hand is at shoulder level, his fist curled. The dark gray bronze has a green patina in some areas, especially along the ribcage, the inner thighs, and the top surface of the raised arm.

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On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G7

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson

  • Dimensions

    overall: 104.1 x 35 x 27.9 cm (41 x 13 3/4 x 11 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.5.10

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1905 from the artist by Mr. and Mrs. John W. Simpson, New York; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1908

  • Renaissance and Modern Bronzes, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1908, no. 162, as "Age d'Airain".

1946

  • Rodin: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1946, no. 9.

1965

  • Wax Sculptures by Degas, Sculptures and Drawings by Rodin, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965-1966, no cat.

1974

  • Nineteenth-Century Sculpture, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1974, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1877

  • "Chronique de la Ville." L'Etoile belge (29 January and 3 February 1877).

  • Rousseau, Jean. "Revue des Arts." Echo du Parlement (11 April 1877).

  • Tardieu, Charles. "Le Salon de Paris--1877--La Sculpture." L'Art 3 (1877): 108.

  • Timbal, Charles. "La Sculpture au Salon." Gazette des Beaux-Arts (16 July 1877): 42-43.

1889

  • Bartlett, Truman H. "Auguste Rodin, Sculptor." American Architect and Building News (19 January-15 June 1889): 65, 99-100, 283-284.

1922

  • Neyt, Auguste. Grand Artistique (April 1922).

1936

  • Cladel, Judith. Rodin: sa vie glorieuse, sa vie inconnue. Paris, 1936: 108, 114-121.

1944

  • Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 15-16.

1945

  • Waldemann, Emil. Auguste Rodin. Vienna, 1945: 22, 73.

1949

  • Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 184, note 56, repro. 168.

1951

  • Pope-Hennessy, John. 'Review: Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art by Charles Seymour." The Burlington Magazine 93, no. 576 (March 1951): 98.

1959

  • Alley, Ronald. Tate Gallery Catalogues. The Foreign Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. London, 1959: 210-211.

1963

  • Elsen, Albert E. Rodin. New York, 1963: 20-26.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 168.

1967

  • Descharnes, Robert, and Jean-François Chabrun. Auguste Rodin. Lausanne, 1967: 52-54.

  • Spear, Athena Tacha. Rodin Sculpture in the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, 1967: 39-40, 94-95.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 148, repro.

1976

  • Tancock, John. The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin. Philadelphia, 1976: 342-356.

1977

  • de Caso, Jacques, and Patricia B. Sanders. Rodin's Sculpture: A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection. San Francisco, 1977: 38-47.

1979

  • Butler, Ruth. "Nationalism, a New Seriousness, and Rodin: Thoughts about French Sculpture in the 1870s." In H.W. Janson, ed. La Sculptura nel XIX Secolo. Bologna, 1979: 161-167.

1980

  • Butler, Ruth. Rodin in Perspective. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1980: 32-35.

  • Elsen, Albert E. In Rodin's Studio. Ithaca, New York, 1980: 157-158, pls. 2-5.

1981

  • Vincent, Clare. "Rodin at the Metropolitan Museum of Art: A History of the Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin (Spring 1981): 24.

  • Butler, Ruth. "Rodin and the Paris Salon." In Rodin Rediscovered. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1981: 33-34.

1983

  • Schmoll, J.A. Rodin--Studien: Persönlichkeit--Werke--Wirkung--Bibliographie. Munich, 1983: 53-56.

1986

  • Rilke, Rainer Maria. Auguste Rodin. Translated in G. Craig Houston, Rodin and Other Prose Pieces. London, 1986: 15-16.

1987

  • Ambrosini, Lynne, and Michelle Facos. Rodin: The Cantor Gift to the Brooklyn Museum. Brooklyn, 1987: 56-58.

  • Grunfeld, Frederic V. Rodin: A Biography. New York, 1987: 98-106, 113-114, 125-129.

1988

  • Fonsmark, Anne-Birgitte. Rodin: La collection du Brasseur Carl Jacobsen à la Glyptothèque. Copenhagen, 1988: 67-69.

1989

  • Goldscheider, Cécile. Auguste Rodin: catalogue raisonné de l'oeuvre sculpté. Lausanne, 1989: 114-116.

1993

  • Butler, Ruth. Rodin. The Shape of Genius. New Haven and London, 1993: 99-112.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 199, repro.

1996

  • Kausch, Michael. Auguste Rodin: Eros und Leidenschaft. Exh. cat. Harrach Palace, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1996: 252-254.

1997

  • Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette. Vers l'Age d'airain: Rodin en Belgique. Paris, 1997: 246-319.

1998

  • Porter, John R., and Yves Lacasse. Rodin à Québec. Quebec, 1998: 58-59.

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: 315-317, color repro.

2015

  • Barbour, Daphne, and Lisha Deming Glinsman. "August Rodin's Lifetime Bronze Sculptures in the Simpson Collection." Facture: conservation, science, art history 2 (2015): 54-81, figs. 13, 14, 15, 20.

Inscriptions

on left side of base near left foot: Rodin; cachet in raised letters on inside of left foot: A. Rodin

Wikidata ID

Q63809252

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