The Maclaren collection: towards a scientific catalog (2)
The discussion was charged because of institutional interests
in the background, so that a platform was needed for an open discussion among
experts. But even at the Toronto Symposium that took place on 6 Nov. 2001, a
detailed analysis of the collection could not be presented and no descriptive
catalog was available.
Since no written records exist on the precise point in time
individual items were created, dating the plasters has remained an
"educated guess", based on connoiseurship and the casting history of
the subjects. Since plasters were not highly valued till recently, Dr David
Schaff, Senior Curator of the Toronto exhibition, may be right in assuming that
the age of foundry plasters rougly corresponds to the year in which the Rudier
Foundry produced a series of bronzes from the subject. Musée Rodin curator Ms
Antoinette Romain, on the other hand, maintains that the signature stamps
attached to the plasters would indicate they were all produced only after Rodin´s
death.
To lay the ground for a more differentiated, objective evaluation,
Hans de Roos has tried to learn more about the background and quality of single
plasters, through his correspondence with Dr David Schaff and
the MacLaren staff. As a result, a first, tentative overview of the plaster
collection could be created, based on categories derived from this
correspondence.
This proposal is also documented as part of the report Rodin
at the R.O.M. - What Is The Original?