Public Installation
Auguste Rodin
Monument à Whistler – Muse nue, bras coupés
September 7, 2021–March 2022
Berkeley Square, London
Auguste Rodin’s Monument à Whistler – Muse nue, bras coupés (Monument to Whistler – Nude Muse, without Arms) (1908) has been installed in Berkeley Square, London, in conjunction with the exhibition Houseago | Rodin, on view at Gagosian, Davies Street, London, through December 18. Rodin was commissioned to make a monument dedicated to the artist James Abbott McNeill Whistler. Though it was never realized publicly, the monument marks a watershed moment in civic sculpture due to its representation not of the artist himself but of a female muse. The sculpture, in the form of a female figure shown climbing the “mountain of fame,” references the difficulties Whistler overcame in his life.
Auguste Rodin, Monument à Whistler – Muse nue, bras coupés (Monument to Whistler – Nude Muse, without Arms), 1908, installation view, Berkeley Square, London