T he only known Alexis Rudier cast of the variation B of L’éternel printemps, the present cast is an extremely fine example of one Rodin’s most iconic images. There are four known variations to the original size of this form, characterized by differences in modeling and the presence of a small devilish figure in the rock in some. The other eight known casts of this size and variation were executed by the Griffoul & Lorge foundry during Rodin’s lifetime. The present work is thought to have been executed using the sand casting method between 1918 and 1923, and would likely have been created by the same craftsman who worked with Rodin during his lifetime. It has prestigious provenance, having been sold through Tiffany & Co. to the industrialist and collector, Emil Winter in the 1920s. It was later owned by Sydney Fiske Kimball, director of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Rodin Museum, Philadelphia. Sotheby’s is honored to bring this work to market after it has been shepherded by the family of the present owner for over fifty years.

Éternel Printemps was one of Rodin's most celebrated sculptures of the 1880s. The theme of embracing lovers preoccupied Rodin and calls to mind the story of Paolo and Francesca, Dante's mythical paramours who were condemned to spend eternity locked in a maelstrom of passion. For the figure of the woman Rodin used the highly sensual Torse d'Adèle, 1882, which was named after the model who posed for the sculptor. This form was first used to the left of the tympanum of the Gates of Hell and again later in La Chute d'un Ange, but it gained its greatest fame when it was united with the figure of the youthful male in the present work. This cast represents the first state of this composition, but when Rodin received a commission for the first of the marble versions, it became apparent that the outstretched left arm and right leg of the male figure, extending freely into space in the first state, would have to be modified. Consequently the base was enlarged to provide support for the leg and arm. John Tancock has compared the two separate states: "In what must be the first version of this work, the outstretched arm and the overhanging leg of the male figure and the apparent instability of the encounter of the two figures recall Rodin's contemporary experiments with the Gates of Hell... In purely sculptural terms the first version is superior to the second since the freely floating arm and leg give to it an élan that the second bronze version does not have’" (John L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976,, p. 246).

Animated by the dazzling play of light on the surface and the sweeping upward movement of the man, the figures seem ready to take flight. As Ionel Jianou and Cécile Goldscheider have noted: 'Rodin is an artist who can see and dares to express in all sincerity what he has seen. He discovers the enchantment of light and its resources, the vibration and intimate movement of surfaces and planes, the throb of passion that animates form. He uses "highlights, heavy shadows, paleness, quivering, vaporous half-tones, and transitions so finely shaded that they seem to dissolve into air', giving his sculpture 'the radiance of living flesh''" (Ionel Jianou & Cécile Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967 p. 19).

From dealing with love in an allegorical way, Rodin began treating it in more human terms. As evident in the present work, there is a marked increase in the eroticism of his art and a corresponding growth in the daring movement of the poses which could be a reflection of the artist's studio practise allowing the models to move freely and independently. Rodin himself proclaimed: "Sculpture does not need to be original, what it needs is life. [...] I used to think that movement was the chief thing in sculpture and in all I did it was what I tried to attain. [...] Grief, joy, thoughts – in our art all becomes action" (quoted in ibid., pp. 19-20).