Updated 07 March 2025
On Display Permanent collection
I am Beautiful
| Date | c. 1885 (model) |
|---|---|
| Materials and Techniques | bronze |
| Size（cm） | 70 x 32 x 33 |
| Inscriptions | Signed front of base: Rodin; inscribed front of base (‘La beauté’ from Les Fleurs du Mal of Charles Baudelaire): “Je suis belle, o Mortels, Comme un rêve de pierre / Et mon sein, où Chacun s est meurtri tour a tour, / Est fait pour inspirer au poete un Amour / Etincelant muet ainsi que la matiere. [sic]”; foundry mark right side of base: ALEXIS. RUDIER. / FONDEUR. PARIS. |
| Credit Line | Matsukata Collection |
| Standard ref. | M1276 |
| Category | Sculptures |
| Collection Number | S.1959-0028 |
A muscular male leans back as he lifts a woman in embrace. This pair is seen in the top section of the right pillar of The Gates of Hell. These two figures were also cast separately as The Fallen Man and The Crouching Woman. The Fallen Man is in the top section of the left door of The Gates of Hell, and a solo figure sculpture enlarged of The Crouching Woman can be found in the Museum's collection. The manner in which Rodin reconsidered individual figures from a new vantage point and then grouped two completely unrelated sculptures in a new sculptural beauty can be seen in his group sculptures. Here, in order to make the two sculptures into one Rodin changed the pose into that of a supportive figure by grounding the Fallen Man's right foot as it stretches back to jump in order to bear the weight of the woman, and changed the right hand of The Crouching Woman that grasps her left ankle into a natural forward position. This pair was originally called L'Enlèvement. The current title "I am Beautiful" is taken from the first line of a Beaudelaire poem "Beauté", from Les Fleurs du Mal, which was carved on the sculpture's step dais before 1887. (Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 134)
Provenance
Bought from Musée Rodin by Kojiro Matsukata, Kobe through Léonce Bénédite, ca. August 1919, as ‘Je suis belle; groupe’ (Fr. 12,000) [see several letters between Bénédite and Suzuki & Co., August 1919, 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
- 1966
- Rodin, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 23 July 1966 - 11 September 1966, cat. no. 21
- 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. 16
- 2014
- Voices Calling from the Unusual: Hirano Keiichiro's Selection of Western Art Masterpieces, National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 8 April 2014 - 15 June 2014, cat. no. 27
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey: Upon the 60th Anniversary of the NMWA, The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 11 June 2019 - 23 September 2019, cat. no. 82, col. repr.
- 2022
- Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus, Museum Folkwang, 6 February 2022 - 15 May 2022
Bibliography
- 1990
- The Old Matsukata Collection. Kobe City Museum, ed. Kobe, "Matsukata Korekushon Ten" Jikkoiinkai, 1990, cat. no. S-42.
- 2006
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2006 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 134, repr.
- 2009
- Masterpieces of The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The National Museum of Western Art; Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2009, no. 134, repr.
- 2013
- Masterpieces: The National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo. Tokyo, The Western Art Foundation, 2013 (Japanese, preface in Japanese and English), no. 133, 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. 1276, col. repr.
- 2019
- The Matsukata Collection: A One-Hundred-Year Odyssey (exh. cat.). Jingaoka, Megumi, ed. Tokyo, The National Museum of the Western Art, Tokyo; Yomiuri Shimbun; NHK; NHK Promotions, 2019, pp. 161, 165, 362-363, cat. no. 82, col. repr.
- 2022
- Renoir—Monet—Gauguin: Images of a Floating World: the Collections of Kōjirō Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus (exh.cat.). Engel, Nadine; Herlemann, Rebecca, eds. Berlin, Hatje Cantz, [2022], pp. 234, 368, col. repr.