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 Auguste Rodin at Galerie Brame et Lorenceau under the direction of Jérôme Le Blay under the archive number 2015-4590B.

The single version of the present lot was originally conceived to be part of the large Tower of Labor, a project for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, an unrealized monument extolling the virtue of hard work and celebrating workers. On the base of the tower, life-sized single figures of La Nuit and the related Le Jour were to symbolize work's infinite movement. At a later date, two identical casts were combined to create the current composition, in keeping with to Rodin's experimentations with assemblages throughout his career.