AUGUSTE RODIN

(1840-1917)

Nijinsky

Footnotes

This work will be included in the forthcoming Auguste Rodin catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculpté currently being prepared by the Comité Auguste Rodin at Galerie Brame & Lorenceau under the direction of Monsieur Jérôme Le Blay.

Provenance
Musée Rodin, Paris.
Roland, Browse & Delbanco, London (acquired from the above in January 1959).
Gustav Delbanco Collection, London.
Private collection, UK (by descent from the above).

Exhibited
Paris, Musée d'Orsay, L'Après-midi d'un Faune. Mallarmé, Debussy, Nijinsky, 14 February - 21 May 1989, no. 27.
Bath, Holburne Museum of Art, In the Public Eye, Treasures from the West of England, 15 October - 8 December 2002, no. 102.
London, Browse & Darby, Edgar Degas 1834 - 1917 Auguste Rodin 1840 - 1917, Sculpture & Works on Paper, 14 February - 16 March 2018, no. 1.

Literature
Exh. cat., Rodin, esquisses, aquarelles et dessins, Brussels, 1960 (another cast illustrated).
C. Goldscheider, Rodin inconnu, exh. cat., Paris, 1962 (plaster version illustrated p. 55).
C. Goldscheider, 'Rodin et la danse', in Art de France, Paris, 1963, Vol. III (another cast illustrated p. 333).
A. E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963 (another cast illustrated p. 143).
D. Sutton, Triumphant Satyr: The World of Auguste Rodin, London, 1966 (another cast illustrated on the frontispiece).
Exh. cat., Rodin, Tokyo, 1966 (another cast illustrated no. 106).
R. Bernier, 'Henri Moore parle de Rodin', in L'oeil, no. 155, November 1967 (another cast illustrated on the summary page & p. 31).
R. Descharnes & J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, London, 1967 (plaster version illustrated pp. 256-257).
V. Barbić & E. Kovačević, Auguste Rodin 1840 - 1917, exh. cat., Zagreb, 1968 (another cast illustrated).
Exh. cat., Rodin, Sculpture & Drawings, London, 1970 (another cast illustrated p. 93).
Exh. cat., Rodin 1840 - 1917, Lisbon, 1973 (another cast illustrated p. 69).
A. E. Elsen, Rodin, London, 1974 (another cast illustrated p. 143).
J. L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, The Collection of the Rodin Museum Philadelphia, Philadelphia, 1976 (another cast illustrated p. 45).
A. E. Elsen (ed.), Rodin Rediscovered, exh. cat., Washington, 1981 (another cast illustrated p. 143).
Exh. cat., Rodin, Sculptures & Drawings, New Delhi, 1982 (another cast illustrated no. 105).
Exh. cat., Auguste Rodin (1840 - 1917), Mexico City, 1982 (another cast illustrated p. 103).
P. Gassier, Rodin, exh. cat., Martigny, 1984 (another cast illustrated p. 140).
S. Kuthy (ed.), Camille Claudel - Auguste Rodin, Künstlerpaare-Künstlerfreunde, Dialogues d'artistes-résonances, exh. cat., Fribourg, 1985 (another cast illustrated p. 169).
M. Doñate & M. T. Guasch, Rodin, Bronzes i aquarelles del Museu Rodin de París, exh. cat., Barcelona, 1987 (another cast illustrated p. 139).
G. Söderland & B. Jarret, Auguste Rodin, exh. cat., Millesgården, 1988 (another cast illustrated pp. 32 & 34).
J. Newton, 'Rodin and Nijinsky', in Gazette des Beaux-Arts, Vol. 114, September 1989 (another cast illustrated p. 101).
Exh. cat, Nijinsky, un dieu danse à travers moi, Paris, 1989 (another cast illustrated p. 80).
J-. M. Nectoux (ed.), L'Après-midi d'un Faune, Mallarmè, Debussy, Nijinsky, exh. cat., Paris, 1989 (plaster version illustrated p. 25).
M. Laurent, Rodin, London, 1990 (plaster version illustrated p. 143).
J.-L. Prat, L'Art en mouvement, exh. cat., Saint-Paul, 1992 (another cast illustrated p. 38).
J. Sillevis & A. Krijgsman, Rodin, exh. cat., Ghent, 1995 (another cast illustrated pp. 200-201).
R. Crone & S. Salzmann (eds.), Rodin, Eros and Creativity, Munich, 1997 (another cast illustrated pl. 10).
C. Ebneter (ed.), Rilke & Rodin, Paris 1902 - 1913, exh. cat., Sierre, 1997 (another cast illustrated p. 88).
A. Eggum & J. Kokkin, Rodin og Norge, Oslo, 1998 (another cast illustrated p. 66).
M. Kahane (ed.), Nijinsky 1889 - 1950, exh. cat., Paris, 2000 (plaster version illustrated p. 232).
L. Peracaula (ed.), Auguste Rodin, exh. cat., Barcelona, 2000 (another cast illustrated p. 98).
U. Berger, 'Three sculptors and a dancer, Nijinsky's relations with Maillol, Rodin and Kolbe', in Apollo, Vol. 156, no. 489, November 2002 (plaster version illustrated p. 47).
M. Gubern (ed.), Auguste Rodin, exh. cat., Barcelona, 2001 (another cast illustrated p. 76).
A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, Vol. II, Paris, 2007, no. S. 803 (another cast illustrated p. 550).
A. Gerstein (ed.), Rodin and Dance, The Essence of Movement, exh. cat., London, 2016 (plaster version illustrated p. 186 & another cast illustrated p. 189).

Conceived in 1912, Nijinsky stems from the final chapter of Rodin's fifty-year oeuvre and is one of the last sculptures he ever made. After spending most of his career working on large scale and complex figures, Rodin turned to smaller figures in the late years of his practice. Works created between 1910 and 1917 such as Mouvements de Danse and Nijinsky mainly celebrated the leaping, twisting bodies of balletic models. Their smaller format allowed Rodin to shape the damp clay using only his bare fingers and modelling knives, allowing him to rapidly capture the flexible bodies and their rhythmic movements. He often observed his models walking around his studio and as the years progressed, figural forms became more fluid and expressive. In these late series, and most notably the present work Nijinsky, Rodin pushed the boundaries of sculpture even further towards a modernised style that coincided with avant-garde trends emerging in Paris at the time.

Parallel to these events, the virtuoso Vaslav Nijinsky (1889 – 1950) emerged on the artistic scene and captivated theatre audiences across Europe as the principle dancer of the Ballet Russes. The company was founded by Serge Diaghilev in 1909 and was regarded as one of the most influential of the twentieth century. Nijinsky was hailed for his exceptional performance in ballets such as Le Pavillon d'Armide, Le Spectre de la Rose, and Petrouchka. Often described as an enigmatic character and extraordinary dancer, Nijinsky propelled ballet into the era of modernism and became one of the most legendary figures of dance.

In May 1912 the show L'Après-midi d'un faune premiered at the Théâtre du Châtelet. Inspired by the poem of the same name by author Stéphane Mallarmé, it was the first time Nijinsky himself would choreograph for the Ballet Russes. The result was a revolutionary and controversial piece, which caused much upheaval and scandalised Parisian audiences. The 12-minute-long act, performed to music by Claude Debussy and with costumes by Léon Bakst, tells the story of a faun (half man and half beast) played by Nijinsky, who tried to charm one of the seven nymphs he encountered when he bathed on the rocks. He attempted to catch her whilst she undressed, but he failed and was left with her scarf. The dance ends with Nijinsky performing erotic movements after his return to the rock. The shocked audience was presented with an eccentric performance, whereby the vocabulary of traditional ballet was substituted with a narrative of archaic, primitive and angular movements. Nijinsky's deeply innovative style in dance reflected the radical, geometrical experiments of the Cubists contemporaneously being developed.

L'Après-midi d'un faune received negative press in the days that followed, as Gaston Calmette's review in Le Figaro reads: 'We saw an unseemly faun, making rapid movements of erotic bestiality and shameless gestures. And this overly suggestive pantomime from the body of a misshapen beast, hideous of face and even more hideous in profile, was justifiably booed' (G. Calmette quoted in A. Le Normand Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, Vol. II, Paris, 2007, p. 551). Rodin was outraged by the appearance of the article and went to see the show the very next day where he rushed on stage afterwards to congratulate Nijinsky. He also countered Calmette's review by co-signing an article written by Roger Marx acknowledging their support of Nijinsky in Le Matin. It led to a public battle, in which Rodin ultimately had to retract his statement as his 'artistic morality' was questioned by the public and he was threatened with the loss of the Hôtel Biron, which was to be gifted by the French State to house the Musée Rodin.

Nonetheless, Nijinsky travelled to Meudon to thank Rodin in person, and they agreed upon a few sittings as Rodin wanted to draw the dancer with the view of creating a sculpture. The meetings were abruptly stopped by Diaghilev, who was fuelled with jealousy when he found Nijinsky undressed and sleeping at Rodin's feet in his Meudon studio on a very hot summer day in July 1912.

Nijinsky was likely created during this last encounter, before the Ballet Russes left for London. For a long time, the sitter for the present work remained unknown. Cécile Goldscheider was the first scholar to identify him as Nijinsky and noted a few features that resembled the dancer's distinctive physiognomy, such as the broad shoulders, elongated ears, sharp cheekbones and short nose. Jean-Michel Nextoux also confirmed the sculpture's physique to be Nijinsky as 'the half-human, half bestial impression given by the statuette was exactly the same as that which Nijinsky and Bakst had sought to suggest' (J. -M. Nextoux quoted in A. Le Normand Romain, ibid, p. 552).

The innovative movement displayed by Nijinsky required a new sculptural form and Rodin looked to more avant-garde trends to convey the dynanism of his subject. Just three years before Nijinsky was created, Marinetti published the Manifesto del Futurismo. The sculptor drew inspiration from the Futurists' theories on movimento that culminated in the present work. Rodin modelled Nijinsky's coiled muscles and elegant body into almost angular geometric Futurist forms. His head was moulded in a triangular shape resembling an aerodynamic cyclist's helmet. The unusual stance of the figure confirms that something completely new is happening, as if the figure is swiftly pivoting in the air and that Rodin is apprehending multiple movements into one moment: 'Imagine someone who drew in and gathered all his weight together in his heart and who, pressing down on this centre, would lift himself up and share himself out into movements, no, who would immediately take them all back' (R. M. Rilke quoted in A. Le Normand Romain, op. cit., p. 551). In Nijinsky, Rodin depicted the dancer as the revivalist of modern age, leaving all classical conventions of form behind. Rodin's enduring relevance in his later years is reflected in the work of contemporaries such as Picasso, whose multi-faceted Tête de Fernande bronze from 1909 shares this desire to capture movement according to the new narrative of modernism.

It was not until 1958 that the clay model of Nijinsky was cast in bronze. Twelve bronzes were cast, plus the extra edition '0' for the Musée Rodin, and were swiftly purchased by buyers. Such was their demand that 'Henry Moore told Rosamund Bernier how much he regretted missing the opportunity to acquire the last cast, which was purchased by renowned museum director and art historian Kenneth Clark' (A. Le Normand Romain, op. cit., p. 552).

Only a few casts of Nijinsky have remained in private collections since the edition was produced. The majority reside in renowned museum collections such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London. The present cast received significant institutional attention as it was included in the retrospective at the Musée d'Orsay in the first documentary exhibition on L'après-midi d'un Faune whereby the controversial and innovative performance was reconstructed through a myriad of plastic work and manuscripts. More recently, another cast was exhibited at the critically acclaimed Rodin and Dance, The Essence of Movement exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery (2016).