Musée Rodin Paris Offers Reproduction of Mahler Bust

[James Meckley]

I found out about this yesterday in another forum but waited until I had more information before posting here. The Musée Rodin Paris—in recognition of the 100th anniversary of Gustav Mahler's death—has released a reproduction of August Rodin's famous 1909 bust of Gustav Mahler. Interestingly, it's not of one of the bronze castings; rather, it's of the plaster model used in the lost wax casting process in the creation of bronze version 'B'. It's a copy of the object shown in the photograph on the dust jacket of La Grange's Volume IV, complete with all discolorations and minor patination flaws. The museum refers to it as the plaster model and La Grange calls it the clay model. I believe the museum is correct; in the lost wax process, the original clay model is sacrificed (destroyed) in the process of creating the intermediate plaster model. (For a reasonably clear explanation of the history of bronze busts 'A' and 'B', etc., see appendix 3E in La Grange, Volume IV.)

In any case, I now have photographs of this reproduction and it's really quite beautiful. This is something I've been hoping for ever since I first saw one of the bronze castings in the lobby of Avery Fisher Hall back in the mid '70s (an example of bronze version 'A'). The unauthorized reproductions that have come out in the intervening years have ranged from crude to embarrassing. Something approaching the real thing is now available. That's the good news.

The bad news is the cost. The price in the European Union is 9.500 €, and the price in the US (without VAT) is 7.943 €. At today's exchange rate, that's $11,333.87!

I have a prospectus and a price sheet (including photographs) comprising two PDFs. If you would like to see them, send me your email address via this board's private messaging system. Standard disclaimer: I have no connection to the Musée Rodin Paris, nor any financial interest in this matter.

James (who's conflicted at the moment, but who believes he'll eventually buy one of these.)

[brunumb]

I have had my eye on this one for some time.  It is considerably cheaper.

http://www.statue.com/searchresult.asp?CartId=7019080-EVEREST-JUDBL854&tpc=

 

[James Meckley]

I have had my eye on this one for some time.  It is considerably cheaper.

I saw this one several years ago and gave it a wide berth. It is quite a bit cheaper. Unfortunately,

1) it doesn't look anything like the Rodin bust (of which the seller claims it's a copy), and

2) it doesn't look anything like Gustav Mahler.

To add insult to injury, the seller couldn't take the trouble to spell Mahler's first name correctly.

James

[brunumb]

Thanks for the heads up James.
I guess both are out of the frame for me now.