Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

This work will be included in the forthcoming Auguste Rodin catalogue critique de l'oeuvre sculpté currently being prepared by the Comité Rodin at Galerie Brame et Lorenceau under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay under the archive number 2010-3246B.

Thomas Fortune Ryan (1851-1928) was an American tobacco and public transportation magnate, who built his fortune as an entrepreneurial young businessman at the turn of the 20th century. Long an admirer of Rodin, Ryan commissioned his first portrait bust in 1909, and in 1910 donated $25,000 to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York to purchase several of the artist's bronzes. This generous donation formed the core of the Museum's Rodin collection; introducing the sculptor to the American public, its gallery dedicated to the artist opened on 2 May 1912. Rodin himself also gave to the museum a group of small plasters and a bronze bust of Ryan as a gesture of his gratitude.

(fig. 1) Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, Portrait of Thomas Fortune Ryan, 1913. Virginia Historical Society (1992.29); Gift of Mrs. Anne Worrall Ryan. 27715758FIG-TFR