Getty Museum Acquires Rodin, Claudel Sculptures

LOS ANGELES, CA — The J. Paul Getty Museum announced Wednesday the acquisition of two French bronze sculptures by Auguste Rodin and his onetime student Camille Claudel, which will go on view this summer.

"Each of these bronzes is a work of outstanding quality and importance, but it is the close connection between the two artists that makes their combined acquisition such a powerful statement about French sculpture at the turn of the twentieth century -- a moment when this medium was fundamentally transformed," said Timothy Potts, director of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

"It is particularly gratifying to be able to acquire a major work by Claudel -- Rodin's student and lover -- at a time when her achievement as an artist is receiving the recognition it deserves," he said.

Potts added that Claudel "was already regarded as an artistic genius by her contemporaries, but her reputation always suffered from being in Rodin's shadow. Fortunately this has changed in recent years, to the point that it is today nearly impossible to collect her already scarce work. We could not therefore pass up the chance to bring this breathtaking sculpture into the Getty, along with a rare lifetime cast (by) Rodin."

At just over a foot tall, Claudel's Torso of a Crouching Woman depicts a naked female body crouching on the floor, with no head or arms and the left knee cut off. The Torso is "extremely rare," according to the Getty, as its plaster model is lost and only one other bronze cast exists, in a French museum.

It is the first Claudel in the Getty's collection, and the only one in a Los Angeles museum. With this acquisition, there are now six sculptures in American museums by Claudel, who was born in Northern France in 1864, became Rodin's assistant in 1883 and began a tumultuous affair with him that would last until 1898.

The Getty acquisition of Rodin's Bust of John the Baptist is one of five casts of the sculpture made during the artist's lifetime and is distinguished from the other four by the absence of a base and a slight shortening of the lower section of the chest, according to the museum.

Early lifetime casts of Rodin bronzes are very rare in American museums, according to Anne-Lise Desmas, the Getty's senior curator of sculpture and decorative arts.

"The Getty now has two great works by the master Rodin, respectively in marble and in bronze," she said. "The addition of Bust of John the Baptist, a very refined bronze cast made under Rodin's direct supervision, fills an important gap and ensures a better representation in the collection of this pivotal artist in the history of sculpture. The very fine chiseling and nuanced variation of texture in the hair, beard, flesh, bony forehead and skeletal neck attest to the high quality of this bronze. No doubt our visitors will be compelled by the strength of the spiritual expression that emanates from this vigorous depiction of John the Baptist."

The Getty Museum acquired its first sculpture by Rodin, the marble Christ and Mary Magdalene, in 2015. It is currently on view in the museum's West Pavilion, alongside French paintings from the same period.

City News Service; Photos courtesy of the The J. Paul Getty Museum