Auguste Rodin valuation
The Thinker, The Kiss, and a casting history that has to be understood before anything else.
Auguste Rodin was born in Paris in 1840, was rejected three times by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and worked as a decorative mason for twenty years.
What a work by Auguste Rodin is worth
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation is free, made online from the photographs you send, and it commits you to nothing. We act for sellers across the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States.
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Bio
Auguste Rodin was born in Paris in 1840, was rejected three times by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and worked as a decorative mason for twenty years. The Age of Bronze in 1877 was so convincing that he was accused of casting from a live model. The Gates of Hell, commissioned in 1880 and never finished, generated most of the figures he is famous for, including The Thinker and The Kiss, which were enlarged and issued independently. He left everything to the French state, which is why the Musee Rodin exists and why it holds the moral rights to the work.
Nothing about a Rodin bronze can be assumed from its appearance. The Musee Rodin has authority to produce editions from the original plasters, limited by French law to twelve casts per model, and these posthumous casts are legitimate and are marked as such. Alongside them are lifetime casts, unauthorised casts and surmoulages taken from finished bronzes, which are smaller and softer in detail. Foundry mark, signature, cast number and the Comite Auguste Rodin's opinion are the whole of the exercise. Marbles were largely carved by assistants, which is normal practice and documented.
At a glance
- Born
- 12 November 1840, Paris
- Died
- 17 November 1917, Meudon
- Movements
- Modern art, Symbolism
More on Wikipedia.
Rodin in London
A cast of The Burghers of Calais, made in 1908, stands in Victoria Tower Gardens beside the Houses of Parliament, where it was unveiled in July 1915. In 1914 Rodin gave the Victoria and Albert Museum more than twenty works, in acknowledgement of Britain's support for France in the war, and the museum's collection is one of the largest of his work outside France.
That long British connection means Rodin bronzes and marbles turn up in British collections with real histories, and an old provenance is worth tracing in full. It does not replace the cast number, foundry mark and the Comité Auguste Rodin's opinion, which are still the basis of any attribution.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.
