Auguste Rodin

(France 12 Nov 1840–17 Nov 1917)

Georges Rudier Fondeur

(France)

Title

The Prodigal Son

Year

1885-1887
cast 1970

Media category

Sculpture

Materials used

bronze

Edition

12/12

Dimensions

139.5 x 76.2 x 71.1cm

Signature & date

Signed top of base, incised "A.Rodin". Not dated.

Credit

William Farnsworth Bequest Fund 1979

Accession number

210.1979

Location

19th c European art

Further information

Were it not for its palpable bodily presence, this moving bronze might almost seem a manifestation of pure spirit. Flame-like and quavering, the supplicant seems already to have passed beyond filial remorse to paternal absolution. Rodin's pre-emption of symbolist and expressionist imperatives is patent in the work. Unarguably the greatest sculptor of the early modern period - it is almost impossible to call him a nineteenth-century figure - Rodin was also among the most prolific. His Paris studio was large and active, and the French master himself a worker of formidable muscularity. Rodin's reputation for genius, cultivated in part by the artist himself, is justified by the extraordinary variety of his invention and the ardour he brought to even the smallest project. 'The prodigal son' characterises Rodin's quest for the life-force within the human form.

AGNSW Handbook, 1999.

Bibliography (13)

Art Gallery of New South Wales, Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981 1981, Sydney, 1981, 27 (colour illus.).

David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Fine and decorative art 1978, 1978, (illus.). cat.no. 1

J. de Caso and P. Sanders, Rodin sculpture, a critical study of the Spreckels Coll, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1977, 159-163 (illus.). cat.no. 24

Renee Free, Art and Australia (Vol. 22, No. 1) Spring 1984, 'European Acquisitions: 1972-83', pg. 63-67, Sydney, Spring 1984, 66, 74, 76 (illus.).

Renée Free, Three years on: a selection of acquisitions 1978-1981 1981, 'European Art', pg. 27-36, Sydney, 1981, 27 (colour illus.), 30. cat.no. 1

P. Gsell, L'Art et les artistes 1906-1907, 1906-1907, 406, 402 (illus.).

Bruce James, Art Gallery of New South Wales handbook, 'Western Collection: Paintings and Sculpture', pg. 17-77, Domain, 1999, 47 (colour illus.).

E.H. Ramsden, Twentieth century sculpture, London, 1949, 126.

Auguste Rodin, Art, London, 1912, 30-31.

S. Story, Rodin, London, 1939, 146 (illus.). plate no. 69-71

Athena C. Tacha, Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin 1964, 1964, 23-39.

Athena C. Tacha, Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin Autumn 1969, Autumn 1969, 25.

Victoria and Albert Museum, Catalogue of Sculpture by Rodin, London, 1925, IV (illus.), 13.

Exhibition history (2)

Fine and decorative art (1978), David Jones' Art Gallery, Sydney, Sydney, 17 Oct 1978–07 Nov 1978

Three years on: Acquisitions 1978-81, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 15 Oct 1981–01 Dec 1981