Mar 14, 2024 - Sale 2662

Sale 2662 - Lot 94

Price Realized: $ 5,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 5,000 - $ 8,000
AUGUSTE RODIN
Henri Becque.

Drypoint on cream laid paper, 1883-87. 159x203 mm; 6¼x8 inches, full margins. Third state (of 4). Artist's proof, aside from the edition of 100 from L'Estampe Originale. Signed and dedicated in ink, lower right. A superb impression of this extremely scarce print.

Rodin (1840-1917) made this drypoint from his terra-cotta bust sculpture from around 1883-86 (which he also made as a bronze), showing it from three different views. According to Thorson, "The Theatrical composition may be intentioned as Henri Becque (1837-1900), a close friend of Rodin, was a well-known dramatist and restorer of great realistic comedy . . . The playwright was among the distinguished writers, artists and statesmen, including J. P. Laurens, Alphonse Legros, Jules Dalou, Antonin Proust, and Victor Hugo, whose portraits Rodin made in the early 1880s when he began his series of busts of famous men and women." Delteil 9; Thorson 7.