Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), Le Baiser, 1ère réduction

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Le Baiser, 1ère réduction
signed 'Rodin' (on the front of the rock); inscribed with foundry mark 'F. BARBEDIENNE. Fondeur' (on the left side of the rock); stamped 'P P' (on the underside)
bronze with dark brown patina
Height: 27 7/8 in. (70.9 cm.)
Conceived in 1886 and cast between 1905-1910

Provenance
Comte de Moët, France.
Fernand Ley, Paris.
Anon. sale, Parke Bernet Galleries, Inc., New York, 13 January 1966, lot 56.
Acquired at the above sale by the late owners.

Pre-Lot Text
Property from the Collection of Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass

Literature
G. Grappe, Catalogue du Musée Rodin, Paris, 1927, p. 47, nos. 91-92 (marble version illustrated).
G. Grappe, Le Musée Rodin, Paris, 1947, p. 142 (marble version illustrated, pl. 71).
C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1962, p. 49 (marble version illustrated).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin, New York, 1963, p. 62 (larger version illustrated, p. 63; dated 1880-1882).
R. Descharnes and J.-F. Chabrun, Auguste Rodin, Lausanne, 1967, p. 130 (marble version illustrated, p. 131).
I. Jianou and C. Goldscheider, Rodin, Paris, 1967, p. 100 (detail of marble version illustrated, pl. 54; marble version illustrated, pl. 55).
C. Goldscheider, Rodin Sculptures, London, 1970, no. 49 (marble version illustrated).
J.L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, The Collection of the Rodin Museum, Philadephia, Philadelphia, 1976, pp. 72, 90 and 108, no. 151 (marble version illustrated, p. 77).
J. de Caso and P. Sanders, Rodin's Sculpture, A Critical Study of the Spreckels Collection, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 148-153, no. 22 (other casts illustrated, pp. 148 and 150).
R.M. Rilke, Rodin, Salt Lake City, 1982, pp. 38 and 104 (another cast illustrated, p. 39).
A.E. Elsen, The Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin, Stanford, 1985, pp. 78 and 80-81 (another cast illustrated, p. 79, fig. 70).
N. Barbier, Marbres de Rodin, Collection du Musée, Paris, 1987, pp. 184 and 258, no. 79 (marble version illustrated, pp. 185 and 187).
A. Le Normand-Romain, Le Baiser de Rodin, Paris, 1995, pp. 20-21 (another cast illustrated, fig. 2; plaster version illustrated, fig. 3).
A. Le Normand-Romain, Rodin, Paris, 1997, p. 49 (terracotta version illustrated, p. 48).
J. Vilain, Rodin at the Musée Rodin, London, 1997, p. 39 (marble version illustrated in color).
A. Pingeot, "Rodin au Musée du Luxembourg" in La Revue du Musée d'Orsay, Autumn 2000, pp. 67-70 and 74, no. 11.
R. Butler and S.G. Lindsay, European Sculpture of the Nineteenth Century, The Collections of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2000, pp. 326 and 329-330 (copper version illustrated in color, pp. 327-328; plaster and marble versions illustrated, p. 329, figs. 1-2 respectively).
A.E. Elsen, Rodin's Art, The Rodin Collection of the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for the Visual Arts at Stanford University, New York, 2003, pp. 214-215, no. 49 (another cast illustrated, fig. 167).
R. Masson and V. Mattiussi, Rodin, Paris, 2004, p. 40 (detail of marble version illustrated in color, p. 41).
A. Le Normand-Romain, The Bronzes of Rodin, Catalogue of Works in the Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. I, p. 160 (other casts illustrated, pp. 158-161; marble version illustrated, p. 163, figs. 1-3).
A. Le Normand-Romain, Rodin, New York, 2014, pp. 133-134 (terracotta version illustrated in color, p. 132, fig. 121; marble version illustrated, p. 133, figs. 122-123 and marble version illustrated again in color, p. 135, fig. 127).

Exhibited
Fort Worth Art Center, Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Perry R. Bass, February-March 1968.
The University of Arizona Art Museum, The Governor’s Conference on the Arts, March-April 1968.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Collection of Nancy Lee and Perry R. Bass, March-May 2015, p. 62, no. 30 (illustrated in color, p. 63).