RODIN, Auguste

Paris 1840 - Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine 1917

Psyché à la lampe

Psyche to the Lamp [Museum's Title: Psyche]

modeled 1899

marble

statuette

Dimensions (HxWxD): 29 x 27 x 15 in.

at right back edge of cape: A. Rodin

Acc. No.: 1975.738

Credit Line: Anonymous gift in memory of Ward Thoron (1867-1938) and Louisa Chapin Hooper Thoron (1874-1975)

Photo credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

© Artist : public domain

© Artist : public domain

Boston, Massachusetts, Museum of Fine Arts

www.mfa.org

Provenance

• 1900, Paris, Pavillon de l'Alma, exhibited at the Exposition Rodin and purchased by Henry Adams (1838-1918), Boston and Washington, D.C., for his niece, Louisa Chapin Hooper (Mrs. Ward) Thoron (1874-1975), Boston
• From May 17, 1904 until 1975, the piece was on loan to the MFA from Louisa Chapin Hooper Thoron
• By inheritance from Mrs. Thoron to anonymous donors
• 1975, Anonymous gift in memory of Ward Thoron (1867-1938) and Louisa Chapin Hooper Thoron (1874-1975)

Bibliography

• Museum's website, 29 February 2012 and 21 March 2012
• 1967 Descharnes, Chabrun
  Robert Descharnes, Jean-François Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, New York, The Viking Press, 1967, p. 141, repr.
• 1993 Butler
  Ruth Butler, Rodin: The Shape of Genius, New Haven and London, Yale University Press, 1993, p. 402
• 2007 Le Normand-Romain (français)
  Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, avec la collaboration d'Hélène Marraud et Diane Tytgat, introductions par Dr. Ruth Butler et Mr. Régis Cusinberche, Rodin et le bronze. Catalogue des œuvres conservées au musée Rodin, 2 volumes, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, œuvre absente de ce catalogue
• 2007 Le Normand-Romain (English)
  Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, with the collaboration of Hélène Marraud and Diane Tytgat, introductions by Dr. Ruth Butler and Mr. Régis Cusinberche, The Bronzes of Rodin. Catalogue of works in the Musée Rodin, 2 volumes, English version, Paris, Musée Rodin / Editions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 2007, work not in this catalogue

Exhibitions

• 1900 Paris
  
  Exposition universelle internationale, Paris, Pavillon de l'Alma, 1900
  
  
  2001 Paris
  
  Rodin en 1900: l'exposition de l'Alma, Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, March 12-July 15, 2001, no. 112, p. 256-257, repr.
  
  
  2005 Nagoya
  
  Masterworks from the MFA, Boston: Celebrating the Human Form in Art, Nagoya/Boston Museum of Fine Arts, March 18-September 25, 2005
  
  
  2006-2012 Boston
  
  Degas to Picasso: Modern Masters, Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, January 18, 2006-June 1, 2012
  
  
  2011-2012 Stanford
  
  Rodin and America, Influence and Adaptation, 1876-1936, Stanford University, CA, Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts, October 4, 2011-January 1, 2012, fig. 11

Related works

• Rhode Island, Private Collection.

Comment

• Museum's website, July 11, 2011:
  This sculpture represents Psyche, beloved of Cupid, ancient god of love. It shows an intimate moment in their complicated tale, when Psyche secretly sought a glimpse of her sleeping lover. Rodin's marbles were carved by professional artisans, but the sculptor carefully supervised their execution and often provided the finishing touches.
  Museum's file, Departement Art of Europe, 1975:
  This work relates to a series entitled the Bathers and more directly to a plaster of precisely the same size and of the same name dated 1899, which was shown in 1910 at the Salon de la Libre Esthétique in Brussels. The piece although only 29 inches high achieves the monumentality of form so characteristic of Rodin's mature work. Its long, ondulating movement and contrasting finished and rough surfaces of the marble recall certain works of Michaelangelo, especially those from the "Slave series", in which great tension is set up between the independence of the figure and the restraints of the stone block from which it was carved.

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