With this year marking the centenary of the sculptor’s death, Auguste Rodin is much in the news. While the Grand Palais in Paris is marking the event with a major exhibition, Fraysse et Associés sold a 2ft 1in (64cm) high lifetime cast bronze figural group for €1.55m (£1.35m) at Drouot on March 22.
Titled l’Éternel Printemps, the model is one of the groups originally conceived for The Gates of Hell project. This particular patinated bronze proof is a first state, and one of around 10 cast by the Griffoul et Lorge foundry in Paris.
The Rodin committee has suggested that the bronze was probably cast between 1887 and 1894. It had been in a private collection, and before that, c.1971, it was at the Galerie Bielle in Compiègne.