Spring (Le Printemps)

Auguste Rodin

1882–88 · Drypoint; only state · Drawings and Prints

Rodin learned the drypoint technique—a printmaking method that involves drawing with a needle directly on a metal plate—from the artist Alphonse Legros during a visit to London in 1881. The motif of a female figure whose head is encircled by putti appeared first on a vase Rodin designed for the Sèvres porcelain factory, where he worked from 1879 to 1885, though the composition here is most similar to a related porcelain plaque in the collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University.

Artist

Auguste Rodin

Date

1882–88

Medium

Drypoint; only state

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966