Rodin is indispensable

Auguste Rodin has been represented in the collection with two drawings since 1927. But the French artist is regarded as the founding father of modern sculpture and is therefore indispensable in the overview of the development of sculpture that Hammacher wants to present.  

In 1950 he has the opportunity to acquire 3 sculptures: Mask of Hanako, a patinated bronze face of the Japanese actor Hanako Ohta Hisa, the small Study for Eustache de St. Pierre (one of the Burghers of Calais) and Squatting woman. This life-sized sculpture is Hammacher’s personal favourite, because Rodin’s ‘sculptor’s spirit’ is perfectly expressed in the treatment of the surface. Squatting woman is immediately given a place in the new sculpture gallery in 1953 but has stood outdoors on a pedestal since the opening of the sculpture garden in June 1961.