Broken Beauty - Rodin & Picasso

Despite Picasso’s admiration of Rodin following his presumed visit to the sculptor’s solo pavilion at the Place de l’Alma during the 1900 Exposition Universelle, and the subsequent influence the older artist had upon the younger, to our knowledge both men never met, even though they resided and worked in Paris until Rodin’s death in 1917. We can only wonder what both artists would have thought to see their works side by side.

There are parallels between the two artists beyond simply the subject of the broken-nosed man: both artists created these sculptures at the outset of their long and illustrious careers, each in their early 20s; both men adopted similar working methods, preferring to work in their studios constantly evolving in their exploration of the ever-changing world around them. Neither adhered to conventions of the day, choosing instead to follow their own paths. Both artists held these respective sculptures in high regard: the unique plaster was kept by Picasso his entire life and subsequently passed down to his family. The early lifetime cast was given by Rodin to his artist friend, Léon Lhermitte, again retained by the painter’s family until 2019.

After initial rejection, L’Homme au nez cassé enjoyed much success during Rodin’s lifetime. Rodin stated: “That mask determined all my future work.” Equally, almost all the casts of Picasso’s Tête de picador au nez cassé reside in museum collections worldwide.

Creative geniuses who paved the way for modernity in art respectively, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) had a profound and lasting impact on the art of their time and that of generations to come. Broken Beauty: Rodin & Picasso provides a truly unique opportunity to acquire Picasso’s original plaster, his most famous Blue Period sculpture, as well as one of only two bronze casts left in private hands, along with the lifetime Rodin cast that inspired it, the present bronze given by Rodin to his artist friend Lhermitte.