Genius of Eternal Rest, without Head and Arms

Auguste Rodin|Coubertin Foundry

modeled ca. 1899, cast 1980 · Bronze · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This mourning genius (or spirit) is a truncated reworking, on a smaller scale, of a full-length figure with a head and arms that was originally intended for Rodin’s funerary monument to the painter Pierre Puvis de Chavannes. Based on an antique model, the sculpture evokes the shared love of classical art at the core of Rodin and Puvis’s friendship and artistic practices. The figure’s unbalanced pose, however—accentuated here by the missing appendages—defies classical ideals even as it recalls them.

Artist

Auguste Rodin|Coubertin Foundry

Date

modeled ca. 1899, cast 1980

Medium

Bronze

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 1984