Collecting & Displaying Rodin’s Egypt

Votive statuette of Apis bull. 664–30 BCE (Late Period–Ptolemaic Period). Copper alloy. Egypt; Findspot unknown. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin: CO.00685.

Egypt and France at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

By Rodin’s lifetime, there was already a deeply rooted fascination with ancient Egypt in France. Napoleon Bonaparte’s invasion of Egypt (1798–1801) brought its ancient past and natural history to French audiences through the vibrant illustrations and observations of over 160 French scholars recorded in the publication series Description de l'Égypte (1806–29). Jean-François Champollion’s (1790–1832) decipherment of the Egyptian hieroglyphic script and written language cemented French scholars at the forefront of the founding of Egyptology and the serious study of ancient Egypt. Across the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Louvre became a monument to France’s imperial and intellectual ambitions concerning Egypt’s past, amassing a huge collection of looted and purchased Egyptian objects—one of the earliest and still the largest collections of Egyptian art in the world. French scholars also played key roles in the establishment of the first iterations of Egypt’s national antiquities service, with Auguste Mariette (1821–1881) founding the Service des antiquités de l’Égypte in 1858, which continued to be led by French scholars until 1952. Egyptology in essence became a distinctly French academic discipline, one that was a source of national pride.

Outside the ivory towers of academia Egypt’s past was also wildly popular among those from all walks of life. Images of pharaohs, sphinxes, pyramids, and mummies were found everywhere in France, disseminating Egyptian history and art, and making it something to be experienced and consumed by everyone. Expositions put forward grand re-creations of ancient Egyptian houses and temples for the public to enjoy, while Cleopatra and Aïda became icons of Egypt in the opera houses and theaters. Egypt flourished in fashion, literature, music, and even advertising. These popular imaginings and reimaginings of Egypt continued to be fed by ongoing archaeological discoveries, leading to waves of renewed Egyptomania across Europe and North America across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Buying Egypt

Against the cacophony of French interest in Egypt, Rodin found his way to Egypt remarkably late in his life and career. His interest in Egypt differed from the intellectual pursuits of Egyptologists or the changing tastes of French society. Instead, Rodin was specifically attentive to how Egyptian artists captured the essence of human and animal forms through their materials.

To investigate further, he started to purchase Egyptian objects on the Parisian art market, as he never visited Egypt himself. The acquisition and selling of Egyptian antiquities were inherently tied to the imperial exploitation of Egypt during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Egyptian objects had been taken as curios by travelers since antiquity, but by this time the trade in Egyptian art was an entire industry. European art dealers set up galleries and shops in Cairo and Luxor, where all manner of Egyptian artifacts were sold and sent on to Europe and North America. Many Egyptian art dealers were also involved in the antiquities trade, and in some cases had better networks of supply and knowledge of local sites and objects than their European colleagues. Rodin’s collection reflects many of the broader types of Egyptian objects in the art market at the time. Small portable objects such as bronze votive statuettes, faience funerary figurines (or ushabtis), amulets, and scarab seals were popular for their subjects and small size, making them easy to display in the home. Larger objects such as coffins, sarcophagi, wall reliefs and paintings, and statuary offered logistical challenges in both selling and display, often requiring specially made mounts, but were marks of the serious collector.

The antiquities trade was not often kind to ancient artifacts, monuments, and archaeological sites. Many Egyptian objects were looted through illicit digging or destructive cutting from temple and tomb walls. Even in cases where objects were legally acquired, their archaeological context (provenience) was seldom recorded, making it impossible to identify their original findspots. Their subsequent ownership (provenance) was also often patchily documented, making it difficult for their histories to be documented. Provenance research carried out by curators at the Musée Rodin has helped to trace at least some of these objects back to Egypt. For example, the statue of the general Wedjahoresnet can be identified with the site of Mitrahina thanks to an account in 1853 that describes it as broken in two. However, many of the contexts of these objects remain a mystery.

Naophorous statue of General Wedjahorresnet. 664–332 BCE (Late Period). Graywacke. Egypt, Memphis. Donation Rodin 1916. Musée Rodin: CO.01194. Checklist No. 19.

The Art of Deception

The art market at the turn of the century led to the blossoming of forgeries. As Egyptian objects became highly sought after but increasingly difficult to acquire due to tightening laws in Egypt, some dealers resorted to making their own antiques to sell. The art market quickly became rife with forged objects, which could be difficult to identify by the untrained eye and easily fooled many collectors and even Egyptologists.

O. Aslanian. A King. ca. 1925. Detroit Institute of Arts. Gift of Mrs. Lillian Henkel Haass and Miss Constance Haass. 31.73.

Oxan Aslanian correspondence and invoice to Auguste Rodin. ca. 1910–13. Musée Rodin: OXA.04717.

Rodin’s own collection was not exempt from the circulation of fakes. He purchased a number of objects from the Greek-born antiquities dealer Oxan Aslanian (1887–1968), who dealt heavily in Egyptian art. Aslanian became particularly adept at producing his own forgeries, earning him an infamous nickname as “The Berlin Forger.” A number of his works have since been identified in museums across the world, and at least one example has been located in Rodin’s collection. This piece is typical of Aslanian’s work: a small, square relief fragment depicting the head of an official. It may be based on an authentic relief dating to the Old Kingdom that was on display in the Louvre. The head by itself is anonymous, with little detail that might reveal its modern origin. Its composition—with the head in the center—and small square cut make it perfect to frame for display on a wall. While controversial as an object rooted in deception, its expert carving and fine details illustrate that forgeries can be beautiful artworks in themselves.

Oxan Aslanian. Relief with the head of a man. 19th century. Limestone. Musée Rodin: Co.03418.

Fakes, both historic and modern, continue to circulate on the art market today. Their production emphasizes the monetary value of, and continues the demand for, ancient objects. Ultimately these forgeries help contribute to the continued looting of archaeological sites and the destruction of cultural heritage. This raises an important question for us to consider: Should archaeological objects be on the art market at all?

Creating Rodin’s Collection

Rodin found his interest in ancient Egypt late in life. It was around 1890 that he started to seriously explore how Egyptian artists captured the essence of human and animal forms in different materials. His exploration was undertaken purely through the lens of the aesthetics and materiality of Egyptian art, and he showed little scholarly interest in ancient Egyptian culture and history. This perspective directly shaped his approach to collecting Egyptian art, which he began to do with much vigor in 1893. 

Calling card for Joseph Altounian. ca. 1912. Musée Rodin: ALT.147.

To fulfill his particular collecting vision, Rodin turned to a number of art dealers based in or frequenting Paris at the time. In 1910, he commissioned the art dealer Joseph Altounian to acquire a collection worthy of a future museum at the Hôtel Biron (now the location of the Musée Rodin). Altounian, who had previously lived in Alexandria and had close connections with antiquities dealers in Egypt, set about this task with much enthusiasm and undertook four visits to Egypt to form Rodin’s collection. He was able to procure large pieces such as statues and reliefs from dealers based at sites including Giza, Asyut, Abydos, Luxor, and Edfu.

Hover over the trip dates to see each journey.
Map with the journeys of Joseph Altounian based on Musée Rodin archives.

Altounian’s diaries, correspondence, and financial records reveal his colorful encounters with art dealers. He corresponded with Rodin only for advice and permission regarding large or expensive purchases. The correspondence below from Altounian to Rodin includes an annotated diagram of a large purchase of wall reliefs that had been cut into smaller pieces, and that would require reassembly at the Hôtel Biron. Altounian’s acquisitions were packed in crates and shipped back to France via Marseille to be received by Altounian’s brother Edgar, who then had them delivered to the Hôtel Biron. On his return to Paris, Altounian even seems to have helped Rodin plan the display of this collection, some 800 artifacts by the time of the artist’s death in 1917.

Annotated diagram of an Egyptian wall relief purchased by Altounian for Rodin. Musée Rodin: ALT.147.

The Artistry of Display

While Egyptian objects were highly desirable in European and North American art markets, they were frequently in poor condition when acquired by art dealers. To make these damaged objects more desirable for sale, art dealers frequently reshaped them to be more aesthetically pleasing: recutting stone reliefs, removing pieces from wooden coffins, cutting away plaster wall paintings, or adding new parts to make a statue more complete. These fragments and combinations were then presented in mounts made from luxury materials such as hardstones and hardwoods that allowed them to be proudly displayed on walls, pedestals, and cabinets. Such practices were key parts of the appropriation of Egyptian art into Western art history, transforming them into artworks that reflected Western tastes and fashions.

Kichizô Inagaki (Frame). Sculptor’s model of reliefs with falcon and rams. View one: falcon. Walnut (frame), ca. 1915. Limestone (relief), 664–30 BCE (Late Period–Ptolemaic Period). Egypt; Findspot unknown. Relief purchased by Auguste Rodin from Joseph Altounian (dealer), September 1913. Musée Rodin: Co.05838. Checklist no. 24.

Caption: Kichizô Inagaki (Frame). Sculptor’s model of reliefs with falcon and rams. View two: rams. Walnut (frame), ca. 1915. Limestone (relief), 664–30 BCE (Late Period–Ptolemaic Period). Egypt; Findspot unknown. Relief purchased by Auguste Rodin from Joseph Altounian (dealer), September 1913. Musée Rodin: Co.05838. Checklist no. 24.

Art mounters were in high demand in the Parisian art market, the center for the sale of both contemporary and ancient art in Europe and North America. Rodin was particularly enamored with the wooden mounts made by Kichizô Inagaki (1876–1951), a Japanese sculptor and cabinetmaker. Inagaki trained in carpentry under his father and then later at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts, before moving to Paris in July 1906. His work was particularly favored by antique dealers such as Joseph Altounian and Joseph Brummer for displaying African, Oceanic, and ancient objects. Inagaki’s mounts used simple, balanced forms that showcased the natural grains and colors of hardwoods such as walnut, ebony, and oak. Rodin was introduced to Inagaki’s work through mounted objects in the galleries of the Brummer brothers, and after an initial meeting, Rodin commissioned him to mount many pieces in his Egyptian collection. The two quickly became trusted colleagues and friends—Rodin even had Inagaki make mounts for his own sculpture. The depth of this connection would have been publicly proclaimed through a joint exhibition that Rodin planned for 1914 titled Stone and Wood, but that never saw fruition due to the outbreak of World War I.

Relief of a king kneeling between two deities. Limestone. ca. 1550–1070 BCE (New Kingdom). Kichizô Inagaki (mount). Wood. ca. 1913–14. Musée Rodin: Co.03483

Inagaki’s mounts are indeed unassumingly beautiful. They place the object forefront but heighten the aesthetic through carefully selected shapes and woods, whose colors and grain provide a modern simplicity rooted in Japanese tradition. Many of his mounts can still be seen today in the antiquities of the Musée Rodin and those of other European and North American private collections, such as those of the eclectic art collector Albert Barnes now displayed at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia.

Unidentified artist and Kichizô Inagaki (mount). Statuette of a Cow. 19th–20th century. Mold-formed glass or fritted glass. The Barnes Foundation: A68.

Unidentified artist and Kichizô Inagaki (frame). Relief. 19th–20th century. Limestone with pigment. The Barnes Foundation: A430.