Curtis_O_Baer_2010

41. Auguste Rodin French, 1840 – 1917

Head of the Cambodian King Sisowath 1906

Pencil and watercolor 13 x 10 inches ( 33 x 25 . 5 cm)

literature Elizabeth Chase Geissbuhler, Rodin: Later Drawings , Boston, 1963 , p. 41 , pl. 15 .

provenance Roche Collection; Collection Curtis O. Baer, since 1958

exhibitions Cambridge, 1958 , no. 46 ; Atlanta, 1985 , cat. no. 40 , p. 156

One of the great inspirations in the last decades of Rodin’s career was the performance by a reknowned group of Cambodian dancers at the Colonial Exhibition in Marseilles in 1906 . Rodin made more than 150 works on paper which were comprised of highly abstracted studies of the dancers in motion along with several portraits. Our portrait depicts King Sisowath, then the ruling monarch, who accompanied the dance troup to the performance. The anniversary of his arrival in France and his meeting with Rodin was commemorated in an exhibition and accompanying catalogue published in 2006 by the Musée Rodin, Paris called Rodin and the Cambodian Dancers: His Final Passion.

King Sisowath arrived in Marseilles on July 18 and stayed for 2 days. Both he and Rodin stayed at the Grand Hotel in Marseilles and it is possible that a posing session took place, most probably after Rodin had fin ished his sketches of the dancers. The Musée Rodin owns a suite of 19 watercolors, seven portraits of the King and 12 portraits of members of his entourage, mostly men .

Anonymous, Portrait of Sisowath, King of Cambodia, Standing in his Study . Gelatin silver print; 17 x 12 cm. First page of an album con taining 50 photographs of Cambodia. Paris, Musée Rodin, inv. ph. 16184