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Aug 24, 2011

Oct 28, 2008

The Genius of the Sculptor

c. 1880–83

Auguste Rodin

(French, 1840–1917)

France, 19th century

Pen and brown ink

Support: Lightweight, translucent beige wove paper discolored to yellow-brown

Sheet: 26.3 x 18.9 cm (10 3/8 x 7 7/16 in.)

Bequest of Muriel Butkin 2008.404

Location

not on view

Did you know?

In other similar depictions of the theme seen in this drawing, Auguste Rodin depicted Genius as a woman.

Description

Auguste Rodin repeatedly explored the theme of creative male genius in major works, such as the famous Thinker, a cast of which sits outside the Cleveland Museum of Art on the south terrace. In this drawing, Rodin depicted the artist in active thought with his hand on his head, accompanied by a wingless “genius” floating above him. He derived this symbol of inner creative energy from the traditional subject of the winged muse, examples of which also appear on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling as companions to God the Father.

Provenance

?-1932

Marcel Louis Guérin [1873-1948; Lugt 1872b], Paris

1932

(his sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 9, 1932, no. 70)

1976

(Shepherd Gallery, New York, sold to Muriel Butkin, Shaker Heights, OH)

1976-2008

Muriel Butkin [1916-2008], Shaker Heights, OH, by bequest to the Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

2008-

Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH

Citations

Lugt, Frits. Les Marques de collections de dessins et d'estampes. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1956. Online. Mentioned: no. 1872b www.marquesdecollections.fr

Non-Dissenters: Fifth Exhibition Marking Our Tenth Anniversary. Exh. Cat. New York: Shepherd Gallery, 1976. Mentioned and reproduced: no. 146

Fusco, Peter, and H. W. Janson. The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1980. Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 336-37, no. 197

Elsen, Albert E. Rodin Rediscovered. Exh. Cat. Washington, DC: National Gallery of Art, 1981. Mentioned: pp. 106-7, 121 n. 9-11; Reproduced: fig. 5.3

Elsen, Albert E. The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1985. Mentioned: p. 221

Lampert, Catherine et al, Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings. Exh. Cat. London: Hayward Gallery, 1986. Mentioned: p. 32

Butler, Ruth. The Shape of Genius. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993. Mentioned: pp. 309-10; Reproduced: fig. 126

Butler, Ruth, Jeanine Parisier Plottel, and Jane Mayo Roos. Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo. Exh. Cat. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1998. Mentioned: pp. 71-72, 118, no. 22; Reproduced: fig. 37

Foster, Carter E., Sylvain Bellenger, and Patrick Shaw Cable. French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. Exh. Cat. Cleveland, OH: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2001. Mentioned: pp. 116-17, 143, no. 53; Reproduced: p. 117

Rodin, Auguste, Antoinette Le Normand-Romain, Christina Buley-Uribe, Patrick R. Crowley, C. D. Dickerson, Laure de Margerie, Véronique Mattiussi, Elyse Nelson, Jennifer A. Thompson, and Nora M. Rosengarten. Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Williamstown, Massachusetts : Clark Art Institute, 2022. Mentioned: p.48, 218; reproduced: p. 218, cat. 102

Exhibition history

Non-Dissenters: Fifth Exhibition Marking Our Tenth Anniversary. Shepherd Gallery, New York (November 1-December 31, 1976).

The Romantics to Rodin: French Nineteenth-Century Sculpture from North American Collections. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (March 4 - May 25, 1980); Minneapolis Institute of Arts (June 25 - September 21, 1980); Detroit Institute of Arts (October 27, 1980 - January 4, 1981).

Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo. Los Angeles County Museum of Art (December 17, 1998 - March 15, 1999); Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR (April 13 - June 11, 1999); Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (October 7, 1999 - January 2, 2000).

French Master Drawings from the Collection of Muriel Butkin. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (August 26-October 28, 2001); Dahesh Museum of Art (February 19-May 18, 2002).

Rodin in the United States: Confronting the Modern. Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, MA (organizer) (June 18-September 18, 2022) https://www.clarkart.edu/microsites/rodin/.

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=The Genius of the Sculptor|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/2008.404|author=Auguste Rodin|year=c. 1880–83|access-date=25 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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The Genius of the Sculptor

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Auguste Rodin

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