Beuret Family, Paris
Claude Roger-Marx, Paris
Jean Cau, Paris
Sale: Christie's, New York, 10th November, 1994, lot 105
Private Collection (sale: Sotheby's, New York, 10th November, 2000, lot 132)
Purchased at the above sale by the present owner

Paris, Galerie Schmit, Pour mon plaisir, 1982, no. 133

Octave Mirbeau, Les Dessins d'Auguste Rodin (L'Album Goupil-Fenaille), Paris, 1897, illustrated pl. 126

Executed on tracing paper and laid down on a sheet of japan paper which is attached to the mount at the upper two corners. The work is floating in the overmount. All four edges are slightly unevenly cut and there are some light creases in places, mainly to the lower right corner. There are some minor nicks to the extreme left edge and some scattered studio stains inherent to the artist's process. Otherwise, this work is in overall good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Rodin was a great reader of classical literature and mythology and in the late 1870's became fascinated by Dante's Inferno, whose dark themes of human longing and despair provided the inspiration for his sculpture The Gates of Hell. He produced numerous drawings in mixed media inspired by his meditations on Dante, works from his imagination through which he translated the Inferno into his own experience. Painterly in quality and reflecting the influence of both Michelangelo and Rembrandt, with rarefied silhouettes emerging from dark shadows, Rodin added thick washes of ink and gouache to these compositions—known as his 'blacks'—to assert a powerful drama of mystery and depth. Of these highly personal works including L'Enfant Prodigue, which he made for himself and showed only to a few close friends, he stated: 'I lived a whole year with Dante, living only of him and with him and sketching the eight circles of his Hell....'

 

In Canto VII of the Inferno's Fourth Circle of Hell, Dante encounters souls guilty of Avarice, who hoarded possessions, and the Prodigal, who squandered them, both of whom are punished for their sins. In L'Enfant Prodigue however Rodin makes reference to the Biblical parable of The Prodigal Son, where the son, after squandering his wealth and ashamed of his sin, returns home to the welcoming arms of his father. With his arms outstretched and extended, embracing both his father and his mother—symbolized by a figure of Rodin's sculpture Eve (figs. 1 and 2)—the son returns to the protective shelter of his parents. Rodin fuses their arms together, heightening them with gouache and running them in parallel to create a long gestural flow; encircling them in a sustained embrace, the son's elongated arms symbolize his longing for union. The trinity of the father, son and mother, with their heads huddled together and seeming to touch (with the father's bent forward evoking Rodin's sculpture Adam), recalls Rodin's sculpture The Three Shades, where the three figures are similarly unified as one.

Rodin's figure of Eve in a rarefi♔ed silhouette of blue, with her arms tightly drawn around her chest in a gesture of self-concealment, heightens the themes of guilt and shame that are associated wi🦹th this work. A second figure of the son in the upper right, gazing upward and kneeling in a gesture of prayer (wishing for his father's acceptance), augments the drama and completes the composition with a delicate rhythm and grace.

 

Albert Elsen noted that 'the repeated brilliant drawings of the parent [in this work and other of his blacks] may have had special and personal meaning for Rodin as a father' (A. Elsen, 'Drawing and the True Rodin,' Artforum, February 1972, p. 66).

 

In a desire to publish his most intimate black drawings, and at the urging of his close friends Octave Mirbeau and Maurice Fenaille who saw their greatness, Rodin in 1897 published a selection of them for the first time in a limited-edition album produced in Paris by the Maison Goupil (see Literature). Among the hundreds of works that he considered, Rodin selected L'Enfant Prodigue to be included among the plates. In the preface to the book Mirbeau wrote of the 'secret thiꦛnking' that Rodin revealed through these works.

Rodin's sculpture of L'Enfant Prodigue is one of the major works within The Gates of Hell, 'embody[ing] all the despairing desire of The Gates and the longing for external union' that are found among its subjects (A. Elsen, Rodin. 1963, p 57). The figure of the son in the sculpture L'Enfant Prodigue, which is similar to that in the present drawing, appears in Rodin's sculpture Je Suis Belle (1882), where again he combined it with a female figure. The same figure reappears in Rodin's sculpture Avarice and Lust, where a man clutches the body of a woman longing for escape. 'Although these and similar figures express the most dire pessimism [and] a totally hopeless attitude toward life, it must be [stressed] that they gave deep personal joy to Rodin, [who] was exalted by finding a meaningful gesture' (Elsen, 1963, p. 57).

Underscoring the personal nature of this work, Rodin apparently gifted L'Enfant Prodigue to his son, Auguste Beuret, or to his 🐬mother Rose Beuret who was Rodin's lifelong companion.

Please note that this work will be the subject of an essay by Dr. Aida Audeh to be published in 2013. Dr Audeh who is a professor of Dante Studies at Hamline University has published essays on Rodin 'Gates of Hell' including one in the book 'Ro🍨din: A Magnificent Obsession'