Antonin Proust - 1897, Drypoint.

Delteil 10 v. Edition not stated. Unsigned as published in Pan 3, no.3 (1897). Annotated AUGUST RODIN, ANTONIN PROUST ORIGINALRADIERUNG PAN III3 in letterpress in the bottom left sheet edge.

Image size 4 1/2 x 2 5/8 inches (114 x 67 mm); sheet size 14 x 11 inches (356 x 279 mm).

A fine, clean impression, on cream wove paper, with wide margins (3 3/4 to 5 3/4 inches). Minor foxing in the margins, well away from the image; otherwise in excellent condition.

Reproduced: German Expressionist Prints and Drawings, The Robert Gore Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Prestel, 1989.

Collection: LACMA; Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth.

This profile portrait of Antonin Proust (1832-1905), a journalist and politician who served as France's minister of fine arts in the early 1880s, coincided with the project for the Gates of Hell, Rodin’s first public commission which Proust supported. The print is based on Rodin's sculpted bust of the sitter, executed in the same year. Rodin's exceptional skill as a draftsman is evidenced in this intimate rendering; at once spontaneous and beautifully precise.

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