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Auguste Rodin

Figure of a Woman "The Sphinx", model early 1880s, carved 1909

West Building, Ground Floor - Gallery 3

Medium

marble

Dimensions

overall: 59 x 62.1 x 58.3 cm (23 1/4 x 24 7/16 x 22 15/16 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer

Accession Number

1967.13.6

Artists / Makers

Auguste Rodin (sculptor) French, 1840 - 1917

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

on right side of self-base, near the fingers of the figure: A. Rodin

Provenance

Purchased 1910 from the artist by Eugene [1875-1959] and Agnes E. [1887-1970] Meyer, Mount Kisco, New York, and Washington, D.C.;[1] gift 1967 to NGA.

[1] Probably in the spring of 1909, Eugene Meyer saw one of two versions of The Sphinx that Rodin was then working on, and asked Rodin to complete it for him. By the end of the year, Meyer heard from his fiancé, Agnes Ernst, that Rodin preferred the other version, and Meyer wrote to the artist asking him to send the "one which you consider the better" (letter from Eugene Meyer to Rodin, 31 December 1909). He repeated this request when he sent payment for the sculpture early the next year (letter from Eugene Meyer to Rodin, 23 February 1910). Finally, in March 1910, Agnes and Eugene Meyer, who were married in February 1910, wrote from their honeymoon trip to tell Rodin how happy they were "to have the Sphinx waiting for us on our return to New York" (letter from Eugene and Agnes Meyer to Rodin, 8 March 1910; all three letters in Musée Rodin Archives, Paris).

Associated Names

Meyer, Agnes Ernst
Meyer, Eugene and Agnes Ernst

Exhibition History

1911: Exhibition of Works by Members of the "Société des Peintres et Sculpteurs", Albright Art Gallery, Buffalo; Art Institute of Chicago; City Art Museum, St. Louis, 1911-1912, no. 125, repro.

2009: The Darker Side of Light: Arts of Privacy, 1850-1900, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; David and Alfred Smart Museum of Art, University of Chicago, 2009-2010, unnumbered catalogue (shown only in Washington).

Bibliography

1927: Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. Paris, 1927: 58.

1944: Grappe, Georges. Catalogue du Musée Rodin. 5th ed. Paris, 1944: 56.

1959: Alley, Ronald. Tate Gallery Catalogues. The Foreign Paintings, Drawings and Sculpture. London, 1959: 223-224.

1975: Hawkins, Jennifer. Rodin Sculptures. London, 1975: 22, figs. 14 and 15.

1987: Barbier, Nicolle. Marbres de Rodin: collection du musée. Paris, 1987: 102-103.

1988: Beausire, Alain. Quand Rodin Exposait. Paris, 1988: 104, 117, 123, 135, 194, 253, 327, 367.

1989: Vilain, Jacques. Claude Monet-Auguste Rodin: Centennaire de l'exposition de 1889. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1989: 200-201.

1992: Barbier, Nicolle. Rodin sculpteur: Oeuvres méconnues. Exh. cat. Musée Rodin, Paris, 1992: 119-126.

1994: Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 201, repro.

1999: Norman Herz, Katherine A. Holbrow and Shelley G. Sturman. "Marble Sculture in the National Gallery of Art: a Provenance Study." In Max Schvoerer, ed. Archéomatériaux: marbres et autres roches: ASMOSIA IV, Bordeaux, France 9-13 october 1995: actes de la IVème Conférence international de l’Association pour l’étude des marbres et autres roches utilizes dans le passé. Talence, 1999: 101-110.

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: 338-342, color repro.

2023: De Margerie, Laure. French Sculpture: An American Passion. Ghent, 2023:368-369, fig. 10