Updated 08 January 2026
Currently not on display
Currently not on display
Man with a Serpent
| Date | n. d. |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | pencil and watercolour on paper |
| Size（cm） | 31.5 x 25.5 |
| Inscriptions | Signed and inscribed lower right: Aug Rodin / Serpent |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | M1762 |
| Category | Drawings |
| Collection Number | D.1959-0063 |
Rodin was a prominent sculptor of France in the late 19th century and is considered the founder of modern sculpture. The body is lightly coloured in brown and the man's head and the snake are accented with thick lines in pencil. This drawing is considered to be related to a bronze sculpture dating from 1882, which is entitled "I am Beautiful". The title of this sculpture was taken from "Les Fleurs du mal", a volume of poetry by Baudelaire, and it represents a man lifting a crouching woman. Rodin partially modified this sculpture and made an illustration for the above mentioned book of poems. He also made a sculpture version of this drawing, in which, instead of holding a woman, the man has a snake coiled around him. (Source: The Digital Gallery. 1999-2006)
Provenance
Alfred Beurdeley, Paris; Beurdeley sale, 2–4 June 1920, Galerie Georges Petit, Paris, lot 337, as ‘Etude de l’homme au serpent’; purchased at this sale by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite (Fr. 2,200, including commission) [see letter from Bénédite to Suzuki & Co, dated 19 July 1920 and auction purchase record in Bibliothèque centrale des musées nationaux, Paris; copy in NMWA curatorial files]; sequestered by French government, 1944; vested in French government under San Francisco Peace Treaty, 1952; transferred from French to Japanese government, 23 January 1959; entered into NMWA, April 1959.
Exhibition History
- 1966
- Rodin, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 23 July 1966 - 11 September 1966, cat. no. 144
- 2012
- Traces of hands : sculpture and drawings by Rodin and Bourdelle from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 3 November 2012 - 27 January 2013, cat. no. 81
Bibliography
- 1955
- La Collection Matsukata. Tokyo, Asahi- Shimbun, 1955 , no. 67. (in Japanese)
- 1961
- Catalogue du Musée National d'Art Occidental, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 1961 (Préface and Catalogue Général in Japanese and French), P-262.
- 1966
- Bessatu Mizue : a monthly review of the fine arts. no. 47, September 1966, p. 91. (in Japanese)
- 1969
- Tominaga, Soichi. Auguste Rodin. Yomiuri Shimbun-sha, 1969, no. 166. (in Japanese)
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. 1301.
- 2012
- Traces of Hands: Sculpture and Drawings by Rodin and Bourdelle from the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo (exh. cat.). Oya, Mina, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, 2012, p. 142, cat. no. 81, col. repr.
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: Complete Catalogue of the European Art. Kawaguchi, Masako; Jingaoka, Megumi, eds. vol. 2: Sculpture, Drawings, Prints and Decorative Arts and Other Works, Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2019, cat. no. 1762, col. repr.