Bust of Jules Dalou
Auguste Rodin
(French, 1840–1917)
modeled 1883; cast about 1889
Object PlaceFrance
Medium/TechniqueMetal; bronze
Dimensions52.07 x 41.91 x 20.32 cm (20 1/2 x 16 1/2 x 8 in.)
Credit LineMuseum purchase with funds donated by William Sturgis Bigelow, Arthur Tracy Cabot, Morris Gray, Denman Waldo Ross, and Gardiner Martin Lane
Accession number12.332
On View
On viewClassificationsSculpture
Collections
Rodin and fellow-sculptor Jules Dalou (1838-1902) were students at the Petite Ecole in Paris in the 1850s; they remained friends throughout their lives, in spite of sometimes competing for important commissions. This portrait is one of Rodin's most penetrating and successful–closely observed, subtly modeled, and full of character. The original plaster model of this bust, a great success at the Paris Salon of 1884, was cast in bronze five years later.
Provenance1912, sold by the artist to the MFA [see note 1]. (Accession Date: May 2, 1912)NOTES:
[1] Rodin lent this sculpture to the Exhibition of Works by the Members of the Société de Peintres et de Sculpteurs of Paris (MFA, Boston, 1912), an organization of which he was the president. Once the sculpture was at the museum, a group of trustees raised the money for its purchase.
