Bust of a young woman with roses in her hair

The Buste de jeune femme aux roses dans les cheveux (Bust of a young woman with roses in her hair ) is a rare and precious testimony to the sculptor's early career.

Between 1863 and 1865, through the intermediary of his photographer friend Charles Aubry, Auguste Rodin rented his first studio in the premises of the glass chemist Charles Feil in the heart of the Faubourg Saint-Marcel in Paris. In these former stables, which he struggled to heat, Rodin created his first personal works, including the initial version of Man with a Broken Nose.

The artist offered the Buste de jeune femme, reputedly fired in the glassworks furnaces, to Charles Feil in gratitude for his help: this allows us to date it precisely to the years 1863 to 1865. A virtuoso decorative bust in the vein of his employer at the time, Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, this previously unpublished sculpture is the earliest model by Rodin that can be dated to this day. He was already a perfect master of his art: the model's features are rendered with sensitivity, and the hairstyle and rose bouquet are modelled with delicacy and vivacity. Its stylistic characteristics clearly distinguish it from the work of Carrier-Belleuse: the meditative air of the model, the animation of the drapery, the freedom of the treatment of the hair. In 1900, at the request of Feil's son-in-law and at the height of his fame, Rodin agreed to retrospectively sign the bust, thereby fully recognising this early work.

This acquisition was made possible thanks to the support of DIOR.

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