Auguste Rodin

Claude and Georges Pompidou, Paris

Alain Pompidou, Paris (by descent from the above)

Thence by descent to the present owner

Arles, Musée départemental Arles Antique, Rodin, la lumière de l'Antiquité, 2013-14, no. 163, illustrated in colour p. 249 (incorrectly described as signed)

Part of this series was exhibited in London in 1901 at the Royal lnstitute Galleries as part of a Pastel Society exhibition. Executed in the late 1890s, these drawings reflect Rodin's growing interest in the female torso, a subject that lay at the heart of his artistic investigations during this period.

The series is distinguished by its depiction of a single model rendered in subtly varied poses. The partially opened pyjamas frame the body and emphasize the torso, the true focus of each composition. Conceived as a coherent group, these drawings reveal Rodin's fascination with the fragmented body, whose successive variations create a sense of movement and transformation. This approach, which isolates and magnifies individual parts of the figure, also stems from the sculptor's admiration for the fragmentary remains of antique sculpture.

Most of the watercolor drawings from the "Femmes-pyjama" series are now held in public collections, including the Musée Rodin, the Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldenhale and the Kunstsammlungen in Weimar.