Auguste RODIN (Paris, 1840 – Meudon, 1917)

Provenance :
• France, Private Collection.

This sculpture draws its inspiration from Greek mythology. The daughters of King Danaus were condemned to the underworld to fill a leaky barrel after killing their husbands on their wedding night.
While they are traditionally depicted endlessly refilling the leaky container, Rodin here chooses the moment when despair overwhelms Danaid faced with the absurdity of her futile task. Exhausted, she lies on a rock, her hair, which the poet Rainer Maria Rilke described as "liquid," merging with the water escaping from her jar in a superb contrast of materials. The smoothness of her body binds painfully to the rocky base, while discouragement shines through in the sumptuous curve of her neck and back.
Danaid was conceived in 1885 while Rodin was in the midst of creating The Gates of Hell. Although it was intended for this project, it is not present in the final version of the work.

This copy of the Danaïde has been part of the collection of Viscount Amédée de Flers since the 1930s.
It is likely that he inherited it from his mother, wife of Viscount Adrien de Flers and daughter of the great collector and patron Count Philippe Vitali.
While Adrien de Flers was close to Rodin during his lifetime, Amédée de Flers, having inherited 1 rue Barbet de Jouy, perpetuated this connection, as an immediate neighbor of the Musée Rodin, by completing the family collection with numerous Rodin sculptures, drawings, and watercolors until his death in 1948.
The Flers family are also cited in several texts relating to Rodin’s work as his collectors over several generations. This Danaïde has remained in the collection of Amédée de Flers’ heirs since his death through descendants.

The prestigious provenance of this Danaïde and its uninterrupted transmission from descendant to descendant make it a particularly exceptional example.

This sculpture will be included in the Critical Catalogue of the Sculpted Work of Auguste Rodin, currently being prepared at the Brame & Lorenceau gallery under the number 2015-4756B.