PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (French, 1841-1919) and RICHARD GUINO (French, 1890-1973). Médaillon d'Auguste Rodin Piece Mold & Or... (Total: 3 Pieces)

Description

PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR (French, 1841-1919) and RICHARD GUINO (French, 1890-1973)
Médaillon d'Auguste Rodin Piece Mold & Original Plaster of Relief, 1915-17
Original plaster
27 inches (68.6 cm) (relief diameter)
31 inches (78.7 cm) (diameter with borders)
Published by Vollard, Paris

THE RENOIR COLLECTION

Renoir met Rodin in Paris around 1887 when the two artists, along with Camille Pissaro, Alfred Sisley, and Claude Monet, participated in the group exhibitions at the Galerie Georges Petit. Evidently impressed by Rodin's career success, in 1906 Renoir invited him to visit his studio in Montmartre, at that time possibly imaging his first portrait of the sculptor. In 1914 Renoir's dealers, the Bernheim-Jeune brothers, commissioned him to execute a portrait drawing of Rodin, which Guino subsequently utilized as the model for the bronze medallion. About this medallion, Haesaerts writes in Renoir Sculptor, "Finally there is Auguste Rodin, with a great forked beard, almost like the Moses of Michelangelo. His admirers made him a sort of god of sculpture. He came to visit Renoir from time to time, not without a certain degree of pomp."1

This relief of French sculptor, Auguste Rodin framed by a garland of fruit is an exceptional plaster cast of the Rodin medallion, additionally noteworthy in that it is accompanied by its completely intact piece mold, and one of only two surviving piece molds.

1P. Haesaerts, Renoir Sculptor, New York, 1947, p. 28.

LITERATURE:
P. Haesaerts, Renoir Sculptor, New York, 1947, p. 28, no. 12, illustrations of another cast pls. XXVII and XXX.

NOTE:
This original foundry plaster is copyright protected. This lot is accompanied by a copy of Gustave Coquiot's Rodin, Bernheim-Jeune, Paris: 1915, of which only 600 were printed. The folio contains 57 of Rodin's sculptures, as well as a portrait of the artist by Renoir, Rodin en 1914, [drawn in] Sanguine de Renoir (blood of Renoir) on the inside cover. What makes this particular (unnumbered) copy unique is the handwritten inscription from Rodin to Renoir, in which Rodin mistakenly signs "Auguste Renoir" twice before crossing through it and properly signing his own name, "Auguste Rodin 1915".



More information about PIERRE-AUGUSTE RENOIR. See also: Renoir, Pierre-Auguste, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Renoir, Auguste, Renoir, Pierre August, Pierre-Auguste Renoir Artist.

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