Updated 14 April 2025
On Display Permanent collection
The Crouching Woman
| Date | c. 1882 (enlarged in c. 1906-08) |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | bronze |
| Size（cm） | 96 x 68 x 55 |
| Inscriptions | Signed left side of base: A. Rodin; Foundry mark back of base: Alexis Rudier / Fondeur Paris |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | M1268 |
| Category | Sculptures |
| Collection Number | S.1959-0020 |
This "Crouching Woman" is more or less identical to the woman about to fall on her back in the tympanum of "The Gates of Hell" at the back left of "The Thinker". The figure in the tympanum has her left leg stretched downwards so that her right hand is tucked between the calf and the thigh of her left leg instead of holding her left ankle. Compared to this independent statue, the figure on the "Gates" appears self-indulgent but free and natural in posture. In this bronze, each part of the body is tightly condensed in an intense frontality. It should be an extremely unnatural pose, but somehow she has dropped off into a doze squatted like a newborn creature in primitive phase. (Source: The Digital Gallery. 1999-2006)
Provenance
Bought from Musée Rodin by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite, ca. November 1921, as ‘La femme accroupie’ (Fr. 30,000) [see several letters between Bénédite and Suzuki & Co., November 1921, in Archives of Musée Rodin, 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
- 1989
- Rodin et la Porte de l’Enfer (Rodin and the Gates of Hell), National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 21 October 1989 - 17 December 1989, cat. no. 17
- 2001
- Rodin et le Japon, Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, 28 April 2001 - 10 June 2001, Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, 22 June-19 August, cat. no. 188, col. repr.
Bibliography
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. S-34.
- 2001
- Rodin et le Japon (exh.cat.). Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art; Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, eds. Contemporary Sculpture Center, 2001, pp. 202, 338, cat. no. 188, 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. 1268, col. repr.