PIERRE DE WIESSANT (SECOND MAQUETTE), c.1886-87 (REDUCTION MADE IN EITHER 1895 OR 1899)

Important Australian + International Fine Art
Melbourne
29 August 2007
25

AUGUSTE RODIN

(1840 - 1914 French)
PIERRE DE WIESSANT (SECOND MAQUETTE), c.1886-87 (REDUCTION MADE IN EITHER 1895 OR 1899)

bronze with brown patina

69.0cm height

Edition of 12 cast by the Foundry Susse, 1971
Accompanied by a certificate of authenticity signed by Madame C. Goldscheider, Conservator in Chief, Musée Rodin, Paris

Estimate: 
$70,000 - 100,000
Provenance

Musée Rodin, Paris
Acquired from the above by Dominion Gallery, Montreal, 1971
Private collection, New York
Private collection, Sydney

Literature

Tancock, J.L., The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, pp.388-390, no.67-69-11 (plaster version illus. p.389)
Elsen, A.E., The Rodin Collection of the Iris B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, New York, 2003, pp.135-136 (illus. another example)
To be included in the forthcoming Auguste Rodin catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculpté currently being prepared by the Comité Rodin under the archive number 2006V838B

Catalogue text

The Burghers of Calais, 1888, is undoubtedly one of the most celebrated achievements of French sculptor, Auguste Rodin. Commissioned in 1885 by the municipal council of Calais, the sculpture pays tribute to an act of heroism by the town's citizens in 1347, during the Hundred Years' War, when the French port city was besieged by the forces of the English monarch King Edward III. After long and bitter resistance, six of the town's leading citizens ('burghers') offered themselves as hostages to the King in exchange for the freedom of their city. The King agreed, ordering them to dress in plain garments, wear nooses around their neck and journey to the English camp bearing the keys to the city. Although Edward intended to sacrifice the men, ultimately their lives were spared through the intercession of the King's pregnant wife, Queen Philippa of Hainault, who feared their deaths would be a bad omen for her unborn child.

Drawing inspiration from the fourteenth-century Chronicles of Jean Froissart,1 Rodin radically departed from preceding interpretations of the episode (which typically featured the triumphant apotheosis of one hero) to capture instead all the protagonists' anguish and vulnerability as they embark upon their slow procession towards death. Barefoot and modestly dressed in sackcloth, indeed the figures are a poignant expression of human suffering - their enlarged hands and feet suggesting resignation and despondency, while their tautened muscles, deep-sunken eyes and furrowed brows evoke a palpable, heart-rending sense of physical torment. Importantly, each is treated equally - with the subtle disaccords between the various limbs and expressions of the individual figures paralleling the different stages of their unresolved inner struggles. As Rodin himself later mused, '...I have, as it were, threaded them one behind the other, because in the indecision of that last inner combat which ensues between their cause and their fear of dying, each of them is isolated in front of his conscience. They are still questioning themselves to know if they have the strength to accomplish the supreme sacrifice... their soul pushes them onward, but their feet refuse to walk.'2

Portraying the fourth burgher to volunteer, Pierre de Wiessant, the present bronze was cast from an 1890s reduced version of one of the life-size clay figure studies which Rodin completed in 1886-87 as part of the commission. Unlike the first maquette which featured Pierre staring outwards with his hand pointing to himself, perhaps questioning his impending fate, the present (which was employed in the final monument) depicts the figure looking over his shoulder, his hand extended in despair. Withdrawn and sorrowful, the young burgher is no longer defiant but rather, seems to look inward in painful recognition of the inevitable.

1. Froissart, J., Chronicles, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth, 1968.
2. Gsell, P., 'Chez Rodin', L'Art et les Artistes, April 1914, no.109, pp.49-72, 67-68.

VERONICA ANGELATOS