Cast authorized by Musée Rodin, Paris
Galerie Georges Bernier, Paris
Private collection
Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art, Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Auguste Rodin - Camille Claudel, 7 July - 22 September 1996, no. 30, p. 159, ill. p. 94
Andros, Museum of Contemporary Art, Basil and Elise Goulandris Foundation, Glancing at the Century, 28 June - 20 September 1998, ill. p. 26
Reine-Marie Paris and Arnaud de La Chapelle, L’œuvre de Camille Claudel, Paris, 2000, ill. p. 119, another cast illustrated, erroneously attributed to Auguste Rodin
Antoinette le Normand-Romain, Rodin et le bronze, catalogue des œuvres conservées au Musée Rodin, Paris, 2007, vol. I, p. 42, ill. p. 43, another cast illustrated
Only in 2008, many small sculptures attributed to Rodin and dating back to 1883-1898, which bore the stamp of the artist’s signature on their bronze versions, were in fact proven to be made by Claudel’s hand. The Head of a Laughing Boy, also called The Boy Pan, is part of this set. This confusion can be understood by the fact that Claudel had been working at the master’s studio as a practitioner for many years and was charged with the most arduous finishing touches of his figures, especially the hands and feet.
Claudel was one of the rare sculptors who tried to study one of the toughest expressions to reproduce: smile. It is for this reason that the Head of a Laughing Boy represented such an originality in Rodin’s work, even when it was still attributed to him: the master had never given it a try. With the Head of a Laughing Boy, Claudel shows us a jovial and chubby face, midway between the fauns of Antiquity and Honoré Daumier’s caricatures. The Head of a Laughing Boy is the work of a fully-fledged artist, whose late introduction to future generations only made us regret her short career.
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