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[Claude MONET] [Auguste RODIN]

Claude Monet - Auguste Rodin

Galerie G. Petit, Paris 1889, 16x24,5cm, broché.

Claude Monet - Auguste Rodin - exhibition catalog
First edition of the exceptionally rare catalog of Claude Monet and Auguste Rodin's dual exhibition at the Georges Petit gallery in Paris.
With introductory essays by Octave Mirbeau for Monet and Gustave Geffroy for Rodin. The catalog features 145 paintings by Monet and 36 sculptures by Rodin in chronological order, including the famous Impression soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise) as well as Le Penseur (The Thinker), still described as a part of the Gates of Hell for which it was originally created.
Small restoration to head of spine, title and dates penned on spine, traces of stamp on front pastedown, scattered foxing thoughout. 
Rare copy of the exhibition catalog of Claude Monet and Auguste Rodin: the greatest of the Impressionists and the most famous sculptor of his time, united by their love of nature and their tireless quest towards artistic ideal.
“Rodin and Monet were bound by a lifelong friendship and reciprocal admiration. While they were true contemporaries, born within two days of one another in November 1840, it is hard to pinpoint when they actually met. They were almost certainly introduced by mutual friends like writers and critics Octave Mirbeau and Gustave Geoffroy, or the art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel. On his return from Belle-Île in 1886, Monet is known to have started attending dinners held by the “Bons Cosaques”, a group of artists and men of letters gathered together by Octave Mirbeau. Rodin also frequented these literary and artistic dinners that contributed to the intellectual effervescence of the period and challenged Academicism. By the time of the exhibition held at the Galerie Georges Petit in 1889, the four protagonists (Rodin, Monet, Mirbeau and Geffroy) definitely knew and already respected each other. On a visit to the Mirbeau family, near Auray (Brittany), in 1887, Rodin saw the ocean for the first time and is said to have exclaimed: “It's a Monet!” To Mirbeau's way of thinking, Rodin and Monet had embarked on the same artistic adventure and were destined to be equally successful. In November 1886, he wrote to Rodin about the paintings that Monet was going to exhibit at Petit's gallery the following year: “He works hard and, in my opinion, he has done great things: it will be a new facet of his talent; a formidable, awe-inspiring Monet, of whom we were unaware… Our friend Monet is a heroic man of courage, and if anyone deserves to succeed alongside you, it's him. [...] the dual exhibition was a great success with the public and critics. According to Mirbeau, Monet and Rodin embodied “most gloriously and most definitively, the two arts of painting and sculpture” (Rodin Museum).

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