Rodin, She Seemed to be Returning from a Long and Agonising Sleep, Nude, Original Lithograph, 1902

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

"Elle semblait revenir d’un long, d’un angoissant sommeil"
(She seemed to be returning from a long and agonising sleep)

Original lithograph by Auguste Rodin for "Le Jardin des Supplices" (The Garden of Tortures) by Octave Mirbeau

Year: 1902

Only one edition of 200
On Arches paper
Signed on the plate
Numbered on Colophon: 156
in original tissue paper folder (not illustrated here, please see later)

Full Size: 32.6 x 25.2 cm

Very quality and condition, negligible signs of age, a little browned edges as usual
(The margins are perfect, never been framed or cropped)

Another specimen of this very same lithograph is in the collection of MET NY, the Metropolitan Museum in New York - Accession Number: 23.19.1(38) - also accessible online.

Authenticity confirmed also by official catalogue raisonné by Victoria Thorson

with certificate of authenticity

Literature:
Victoria Thorson, "Rodin Graphics : A Catalogue Raisonne of Drypoints and Book Illustrations", San Francisco, 1975, entry n. 133
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THE MEANING OF THE ARTWORK:

Published at the height of the Dreyfus affair, Mirbeau's novel is a loosely assembled reworking of texts composed at different eras, featuring different styles, and showcasing different characters.
from the catalogue raisonné:
"The reader may also choose to view the illustrations and
text in closer proximity. In the novel, the narrator, a petty
French deputy sent to a new post in China after a scandal in
his home office meets Clara, an eccentric Englishwoman,
on board the ship. Their affair takes him into the depths of
depravity which culminates in a tour of a Chinese torture
garden, a travesty which metaphorically blends the novel’s
themes of political satire and fin de siécle eroticism".
Excerpt (from the tissue paper, about this very lithograph, in French):
"Elle semblait revenir d’un long, d’un angoissant sommeil"
(She seemed to be returning from a long and agonising sleep)
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IMPORTANT:
This lithograph by Rodin will be sent inside the very rare original tissue paper, including the full title/text and the outline of the lithograph. When published, each lithograph was actually contained into a tissue paper folder but, being that very thin and fragile, most of them have been lost.
A copy of the colophon will be included as well.