Phillips is delighted to offer Property from an Important Private Japanese Collection, comprising seven sculptures by Auguste Rodin, Antoine Bourdelle, and Henry Moore. Acquired from the Contemporary Sculpture Center, Japan the present works have resided in the same private collection for over forty years.
Rodin redefined monumental sculpture towards the end of the 19th century, creating a new sculptural language which inspired not only his contemporaries and students but the future generation alike. The forerunner to modern sculpture, Rodin was interested in exploring and capturing individual and very human characteristics in his mythological and allegorical subject matters—such is the case in the biblical imagery he employed in Étude pour Adam au pilier and Étude pour Eve au pilier. The anxiety about the human state and individual experience so characteristic of his approach is poignantly apparent in his Cariatide à l’Urne, taille originale dite aussi petit modèle and Main crispée gauche avec figure implorante, the contorted forms of which accentuate movement and dynamism.
At the start of his career, Antoine Bourdelle shared Rodin’s interest in infusing realism with mythical and archetypal figures, while still foregrounding individual expressionism. Between 1893 and 1908 he was a pupil and assistant at the studio of Rodin, who was a great admirer of his student’s innovative monumental sculpture. Cheval avec grand soubassement, étude pour le Monument au général Alvear is the perfect example of the rough surfaces of Bourdelle's sculptures which were influenced by Rodin, and his use of flat, simplified forms which were drawn from archaic Greek and Roman antiquity.
Property from an Important Private Japanese Collection:
Lot 198, Antoine Bourdelle, Cheval avec grand soubassement, étude pour le Monument au général Alvear, 1913–1980 
Lot 121, Henry Moore, Working Model for Animal Form, 1969–1971 
Lot 193, August Rodin, Main crispée gauche avec figure implorante, 1906–1907/1975 
Lot 194, August Rodin, Cariatide à l’Urne, taille originale dite aussi petit modèle, 1881–1882/1977 
Lot 195, August Rodin, Étude pour Adam au pilier, 1912/1978 
Lot 196, August Rodin, Étude pour Eve au pilier, 1912/1978 
Lot 197, August Rodin, Vase Saigon “Les Limbes et les Syrènes,” 1891–1892/1933–1934 -
Lot 198, Antoine Bourdelle, Cheval avec grand soubassement, étude pour le Monument au général Alvear, 1913–1980 -
Lot 121, Henry Moore, Working Model for Animal Form, 1969–1971
Moore’s Working Model for Animal Form echoes the work of both Rodin and Bourdelle: while the British sculptor’s exploration of the emotional interiority of humanity—both in relationships with others and isolated—shares an affinity with Rodin’s central concerns, Moore’s interest in antiquity and Greek mythology evokes that of Bourdelle. Working Model for Animal Form is rhythmic, dynamic, and betrays a profound understanding of the human state—characteristics that are so focal to his predecessors’ oeuvres.
"[I realize] that a lot of things one might be using and being influenced by are, compared with Rodin, altogether too easy. So that as time has gone on, my admiration for Rodin has grown and grown."
—Henry MooreThe French modernists’ influence on both post-war art as well as the work of contemporary artists working today cannot be overstated. The raw physicality of the bronzes of other artists included in our Evening and Day Sales, such Louise Bourgeois and Willem de Kooning—with all their psychological and emotion connotations—are indebted to Rodin’s approach. Even more conspicuously, Bourdelle’s chevaux anticipated Deborah Butterfield’s steel and bronze horses and Kehinde Wiley’s Rumors of War. From Jeff Koons’s Gazing Ball (Demeter) to Lynn Chadwick’s bronze couples to Jim Dine’s mythological figures, 20th and 21st century artists have looked to Rodin and Bourdelle for both subject matter and execution style. Even Vase Saigon “Les Limbes et les Syrènes” foreshadows post-war artists’ exploration in the design realm, such as Keith Haring’s Writing Table and Frank Gehry’s Fish Lamp. Whether they were reinforcing his influence or responding to it, in their own way, each of these artists continued the legacy of Rodin in redefining the modern language for sculpture.
[left] Lot 348, Kehinde Wiley, Rumors of War, 2019. [right] Lot 134, Willem de Kooning, Untitled #4, 1969. Lost Wax Bronze Casting
Conceived and executed between 1895 and 1979, the Rodins and Bourdelle in this superb grouping celebrate the technique and merit of bronze lost wax casting, successfully reexamining the importance of posthumous casting and the preservation of the artists’ legacy.
The view some may associate with posthumous casts is conditioned by a specific historical ideology that dates to the 19th and 20th centuries that prioritized notions of “originality” and “authenticity.” This is based on a misunderstanding of the process of creating a bronze sculpture, which entails the creation of a model that needs to be copied and cast, a process which the artist did not always oversee as closely as many imagine. Rodin was one of the first who took a forward-thinking approach to the “original” and the value of multiples that would go on to inform many outstanding artists of the 20th century. These later casts should be viewed together with sculpture that was being made during the last 70 years to illustrate the enduring influence and relevance of Rodin’s approach not only to the human form but to the way we perceive art today. As attitudes change, some artists have recently seen an increase in prices for posthumous works, because as these artists remind us: what really counts is the mind, not the hand.
Provenance
Musée Bourdelle, Paris
Contemporary Sculpture Center, Tokyo (acquired from the above circa 1980)
Acquired from the above by the present ownerExhibited
Somerset, Bruton Gallery, Bourdelle: Evolution, May 20–September 16, 1989, no. 11, p. 8 (another example exhibited and illustrated, p. 21; titled as Cheval pour Alvear)
Property from an Important Japanese Private Collection
Ο198
Cheval avec grand soubassement, étude pour le Monument au général Alvear
incised with the artist's signature and number, and stamped with the Coubertin foundry mark "© BY BOURDELLE No 6" on the base; incised with the artist's monogram below the horse's back right hoof
bronze
23 x 16 1/2 x 8 in. (58.4 x 41.9 x 20.3 cm)
Conceived in 1913 and cast in bronze circa 1980 by Fonderie de Coubertin, Paris, this work is number 6 from an edition of 8 plus 2 artist's proofs.
Estimate
$30,000 - 50,000
Sold for $25,200
John McCord
Head of Day Sale, Morning Session
New York
+1 212 940 1261
20th Century & Contemporary Art Day Sale, Morning Session
New York Auction 24 June 2021
111
This lot is no longer available.
160
This lot is no longer available.
163
This lot is no longer available.
172
This lot is no longer available.
192
This lot is no longer available.
201
This lot is no longer available.