After 100 years, missing Rodin anonymously given to museum
A BRONZE by Auguste Rodin that “disappeared” for a century has resurfaced after an anonymous donor gave it to a Swiss museum.
The French sculptor’s 1887 work L’Homme au serpent (Man with Serpent) – the only bronze version of the work made – was last seen in 1914 when it was bought at an auction after the death of its owner, Antoni Roux, Rod- in’s friend and a major collector.
From then on it disappeared from public view, only now re-emerging after an anonymous benefactor donated it “unconditionally” to the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne in Switzerland. It will join three other major Rodin works – The Thinker, The Kiss and Bust of Victor Hugo.
“The work is in a magnificent state because it has never been exhibited. It’s as if it had just left Rodin’s studio,” said Catherine Lepdor, chief curator. “We knew the bronze had existed as it was in the 1914 auction catalogue but neither we nor the Musée Rodin in Paris had any idea where it was until now.”
Inspired by the Falling Man figure from Rodin’s unfinished masterpiece The Gates of Hell, Man with Serpent was until now only known in the form of its plaster mould in the Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts.
The 28in-tall piece depicts a man struggling with a giant snake.
“For Rodin, Man with Serpent is the fight against Evil,” said Ms Lepdor. “He was really inspired by Dante who recounted in The Inferno how serpents came to bite the condemned who had to fight them off.”
Its original owner first saw the plaster of the work at Rodin’s studio in 1885. In a letter sent on Jan 28, 1887, Roux agreed to pay 2,000 francs for the bronze on condition that no other casts would be made.
Admirers will be offered a preview of the lost work at the Musée Rodin in Paris in an exhibition starting Oct 17. It will return to Lausanne when the museum completes an overhaul.
Asked for details about the donor, Ms Lepdor would only say it was the outcome of a dilemma facing many private collectors: “With each generation, the question arises: ‘Shall we keep it in the family or pass it onto to public heritage? It was this person’s wish for it to reach the public domain.”