Fine Content Rodin ALS on the Stationery of an English Socialite and Client to "Mon Cher Maitre" by RODIN, AUGUSTE

RODIN, AUGUSTE. (1840-1917). French sculptor; creator of The Thinker and other well-known masterpieces. ALS. ("Aug Rodin"). ½pp. 8vo. (London), June 24 [?], 1906. Written to "Mon Cher Maitre." on the London stationery of British socialite MARY HUNTER (1856-1933), whom Rodin sculpted in both bronze and marble.

"My dear Master, I am sorry as I wanted so much to render you some services in testimony of admiration. I cannot, [as] I believe that I have resigned from this society with Paul Adam D'Indy only eight days ago. It publishes Les tendances nouvelles, as its organ. If I am wrong (you can send this card) and should it be another company putting the name of the artist I do not have it here. My distinguished deference..."

Rodin's characteristic rough-hewn style and virtuoso technique made him the leading sculptor of his time and placed him at the vanguard of modern art. As such, he was regularly sought after for large-scale commissions and busts of people of international renown such as George Bernard Shaw, Victor Hugo and Gustav Mahler. In 1900, he exhibited 150 works at at the Place de l'Alma, which he timed to coincide with the Paris Exposition Universelle, and came to the attention of wealthy patrons, such as Hunter, a London salonnière, wife of Northumbrian coal magnate Charles Hunter and close friend of John Singer Sargent. Rodin had met Hunter in London in 1902 and in November 1904 she traveled to his Meudon studio to sit for the sculptor. "There are several casts of her portrait in bronze, but Rodin admired the 'marble' quality of her flesh, and made [a] more elaborate version in that material [now in the Tate collection]. He told her she was like 'an Englishwoman of the time of Pericles' (that is, in the great period of Greek sculpture). The base of the sculpture is a cloudy, formless mound, decorated with a swag of roses, turning the head into a symbol of beauty, as well as a portrait," (Tate Gallery Label, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/rodin-mrs-charles-hunter-n04116). Rodin and Hunter would remain friends and he was a guest at her country estate in Epping Forest and in her London home, whence he wrote our letter.

In excellent condition. A fine content letter and somewhat uncommon in ALS.