Exclusive to support the Mediathèque Musicale Mahler

Support the Musée Rodin and the Mediathèque Musicale Mahler in grand style. The museum is offering, in an exclusive limited edition, a copy of Rodin's 1909 bust of Mahler. This is no ordinary reproduction but an exact cast from Rodin's original dimensions. The Rodin Museum  supervises a very demanding production process, which guarantees the highest quality true to the original. Friends of the Mediathèque Musicale Mahler get priority, but any really serious friend of Mahler, or institution with a Mahler connection, would be interested. This reproduction is 45.1cm high, and costs 4900 Euro - very exclusive, and an adornment for any really serious Mahler specialist or institution. Profits go to supporting the Mediathèque Musicale Mahler and its continuing dedication to research into Mahler and others. Its archive is also the biggest collection of material on Alfred Cortot, for example.

Contact  Musée Rodin – Hadrien Tagu
19, boulevard des Invalides
75007 Paris – France
tagu@musee-rodin.fr
Phone: +33 (0)1 44 18 61 57

"Alma Mahler’s stepfather, Carl Moll, asked Paul Clemenceau, whose wife was Viennese,
to commission a bust of Mahler from Rodin. Moll and several of Mahler’s friends
wanted to pay tribute to the composer after he left the Vienna Opera in 1907.
Rodin accepted the commission, but Mahler, who hated the idea of sitting for a bust,
refused to pose. To trick him into consenting, Sophie Clemenceau arranged for Mahler
to be told that the sculptor had asked to do his portrait. The sittings began in April 1909,
were interrupted, and then resumed in October. “They don’t speak to each other,
being quite content to observe one another; and yet, they understand each other
perfectly,” she wrote. When Mahler left France for America, Rodin continued working
on the portrait and had a marble version of it carved, entitled Mozart. The sculptor used his secretary, Mario Meunier, whom he thought looked very much like Mahler, as a replacement model.
Rodin proceeded in his usual manner, walking around the sitter to capture every profile.
The planes of the face are broad, the modelling expressive and the piercing gaze recalls the
musician who once said, “If I didn’t have to wear glasses, I would conduct with my eyes.”