Lot 365 Dα

Kleine veränderte Fassung von Rodins bedeutendem Frühwerk, der Büste des "L'Homme au Nez Cassé" (1864), in dieser Interpretation und Bearbeitung entstanden für eine zweifache Verwendung im Tympanon des "Höllentores". Rodin verwendet den kleinen ausdrucksstarken Kopf auch in den 1890er Jahren und später - in seiner typischen Assemblage-Technik - in anderen Zusammenhängen, zuletzt für eine Marmor-Jardinière (ca. 1905, vgl. Tancock, op. cit., Nr. 79-5 mit Abb. S. 478).
"Some twenty years after creating his famous "Man with the Broken Nose" [...], Rodin redefined this portrait for his Gates of Hell, where it appears twice. The later version is transformed into an even more pathetic image. Rodin retains the resemblance as well as the battered nose, but the features are so freely handled that the former clarity of detail is gone. With blobs of clay roughly fused and with little modelling, he builds up the head, which seems to fade before our eyes. Rodin has used the textural richness of clay to heighten the emotional appeal of the little head. [...] With only a little kneading of the clay, Rodin magnified the spiritual qualities of the portrait into an unexpected evocation of melancholy." (Ausst. Kat. Spreckels Collection, San Francisco, op. cit., S. 257; vgl. auch Fußnote 1).