Auguste Rodin

Musée Rodin, Paris
Dominion Gallery, Montreal (acquired from the above in 1971)
Private Collection, Montreal (acquired from the above in 1971)
Thence by descent

Robert Descharnes & Jean-François Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, London, 1967, illustration of the plaster version p. 229
John L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 620 (titled Supplication)
Albert E. Elsen, In Rodin's Studio, Oxford, 1980, p. 174
Kirk Varnedoe, Rodin, A Magnificent Obsession, London, 2001, no. 121, illustration of another cast p. 130
Albert E. Elsen, Rodin's Art, The Rodin Collection, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, New York, 2003, illustrations of another cast pp. 593-94
Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, vol. II, Paris, 2007, no. S.791, illustration of another cast p. 499

Brown patina. Very minor surface dirt and a few pindots of accretion in the crevices. There is a square patch of residue near the base which suggests an old label was affixed to the surface. This appears as if it could easily be cleaned off. Otherwise fine. This work is in very good condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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During the 1880s and 1890s, Rodin began to depict the human hand in a series of meticulously rendered and anatomically precise sculptures. Gustave Kahn, Rodin’s contemporary, made reference to the artist’s fastidious process in stating, “Rodin accumulates these studies of details; the cabinets in his studio are full of studies of parts, torsos, hands. He has investigated, with passion, the expressions of the human hand” (Gustave Kahn, Auguste Rodin, Cinquante-quatre illustrations teintées et deux gravures, Paris, 1906, p. 31). Rodin later returned to the theme with Grand main crispée et figure implorante, circa 1906, after conceiving his related Hand of God series (see fig. 1), a group of sculptures in which parallels may be found between the biblical creation story and the divination of the artist's hand.