c. 1880

Maternity

French, 1840 - 1917

This study is one of a group by Rodin known as the "black" gouache drawings. They date from the early 1880s and are characterized by the bold outlining of principal forms in ink and by the use of dark gouache and spared paper to achieve strong contrasts of light and shade. Many of them seem to have been worked on in more than one campaign. Although the mediums differ, the radical simplification of form and the chiaroscuro effects relate these drawings to Rodin's earlier charcoal studies of sculptures by Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel.