Latest news with #Rodin
RTÉ News
5 days ago
- Automotive
- RTÉ News
Alex Dunne to make F1 practice session debut for McLaren in Austria on Friday
Alex Dunne will take another step in his burgeoning career this weekend when the Offaly man will get behind the wheel of the McLaren Formula One car for Friday's first practice session at the Austrian Grand Prix. The 19-year-old has had numerous highs in the FIA Formula 2 feeder series this year. Driving for the Rodin team, the McLaren development driver has won two feature races in Bahrain and Imola, and currently leads the driver standings by three points ahead of the Netherlands' Richard Verschoor. He is also a reserve and development driver for McLaren's Formula E team. Dunne has already had the opportunity to test drive an older McLaren F1 car, doing so at Zandvoort last month but this Friday at the Red Bull Ring will mark his first opportunity to drive the MCL39 during a grand prix weekend. Under the rules for 2025, F1 teams are required to field young drivers in free practice twice during the year, increasing from one in previous seasons. In Friday's hour-long FP1 session, which will start at 12.30pm Irish time, Dunne will sit in for McLaren driver Lando Norris, who is second in the Formula One drivers standings behind team-mate Oscar Piastri after the duo collided in Canada in the last round. "It's an amazing opportunity to be able to drive during FP1 in Austria. I'm really looking forward to getting laps in behind the wheel of the MCL39 and supporting the team with the setup for the race weekend ahead," Dunne said. "I've been preparing well for the sessions, taking part in Testing of Previous Cars tests in the MCL60 and spending time on the simulator, which has been a fantastic learning experience. Thank you to Zak, Andrea and Alessandro for their faith in me. It's a great step within my development with the McLaren Driver Development Programme, and I'm really excited to join the team trackside." While Dunne will participate in FP1, he will also be looking to bolster his F2 title bid with Austria also hosting the seventh round of the second tier series' championship.
Irish Times
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The lives and loves of Gwen and Augustus John by Judith Mackrell - pithy, incisive and fascinating
Artists, Siblings, Visionaries: The Lives and Loves of Gwen and Augustus John Author : Judith Mackrell ISBN-13 : 978-1529095845 Publisher : Picador Guideline Price : £30 Plotted with all the verve of a great Victorian novel, this account of artist siblings Gwen and Augustus ('Gus') John offers a fascinating survey of the lives of both as they chart different but connected courses through the Europe of the Edwardian age, and into its burgeoning modernist scene. Fuelled by the author's ample research and deft use of source material, these two complicated individuals come alive. Augustus, the more famous in his lifetime, is by turns compelling and infuriating, indulged in his mistreatment of the women around him by a society that makes allowances for his amorous transgressions. His art suffers, and by the end of his life he is a satyr-like alcoholic, reduced to painting bad commissions. Gwen, more elusive in both personality and style, emerges as the true artist. Dedicated to the point of mania, her passions erupt in the form of obsessive crushes on women and men in her circle, an affair with the sculptor Rodin, and ultimately in religious withdrawal. Mackrell's pithy and incisive writing eschews the temptation to make her a heroine, and instead she teases out the emotional parallels between these two outwardly different artists. Both are self-centred to the point of sociopathy, yet also forceful and charming. READ MORE The women around them are also fascinating, with one passage detailing the push and pull between Ida John, Augustus's artist wife, and his lover Dorothy (Dorelia) McNeil, as their menage a trois implodes. Ida realises that it might be easier for her to escape Gus if Dorelia stays behind, telling the latter: 'As soon as the baby was born […] Gus would be 'as stirred up with love as he had ever been'.' The readiness of all those involved to sacrifice others at the altar of Gus's need makes for a difficult read at times, and we wonder what other women artists might have emerged from this generation, given the chance to escape their husbands' shadows. [ The forgotten women impressionists: Far more than models, muses or mothers Opens in new window ] As for redemption? There are glimmers. Gus and Gwen were supportive of each other's art, in spite of spats and long silences. In one late autobiography, Gus wrote of Gwen: 'Few on meeting this retiring person in black […] would have guessed that here was the greatest woman artist of her age, or, I think, of any other.'
West Australian
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- West Australian
A family thought the sculpture on their piano was a ‘fake' Rodin. Now it's sold for more than $1.5 million
A sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin — which had disappeared from public view for almost 120 years and was thought to be a copy — has sold for €860,000 ($A1,507,783.20) at auction. Le Désespoir (Despair) — which shows a female figure sitting on a rock holding one foot, with her knee hugged to her chest — was rediscovered at the end of 2024 after last being sold in 1906, French auction house Rouillac said. Rodin, who lived from 1840-1917, made several versions of Le Désespoir. This particular sculpture was modelled in 1890 and sculpted from marble in 1892-1893. Measuring just 28.5cm by 15cm by 25cm, the sculpture was originally modelled to form part of Rodin's monumental work The Gates Of Hell which features more than 200 figures and groups. The previous owners — a family from central France — had no idea of its value and had displayed the sculpture on top of a piano alongside family photos, auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac told CNN. 'They said 'it's a fake, it's a copy',' Rouillac said, adding he nevertheless decided to investigate further. The details of this sculpture are striking, Rouillac told CNN. 'The back, the muscles, they are perfect,' he said. 'You can feel every vertebra in the spinal column.' Following his own investigation, Rouillac took the sculpture for assessment by the Comité Rodin, which maintains a catalogue of the artist's work. Comité Rodin founder Jérôme Le Blay told CNN he was immediately struck by the 'exceptional' piece. 'I realised in a second that it was real,' he said. 'I had absolutely no doubt.' This particular example is 'extremely well made,' Le Blay said, adding it dates back to a period when Rodin was dedicating a huge amount of time to making a small number of sculptures. Rodin would have worked with assistants who would have carried out the initial work on a piece of marble, before he performed the final stages, he explained. According to Le Blay, the sculpture dates to 'one of the best moments of Rodin's career' before his growing fame meant he started to produce more and more works after the turn of the century. Upon his death, Rodin left his works to the Musée Rodin in Paris, as well as granting it permission to continue producing his bronze sculptures. While many of these posthumous bronzes go under the hammer each year, marbles are much harder to find, Le Blay said. Most of Rodin's marbles are owned by the Musée Rodin or by other large museums around the world. 'Marbles in private collections are rare,' he said, adding this piece has a 'kind of magic' due to the fact it has reappeared for sale after such a long time. In a 'passionate' auction, the top bid was made by a young banker from the US West Coast, according to the auction house.
Perth Now
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Family's ‘fake' art piece sells for more than $1.5 million
A sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin — which had disappeared from public view for almost 120 years and was thought to be a copy — has sold for €860,000 ($A1,507,783.20) at auction. Le Désespoir (Despair) — which shows a female figure sitting on a rock holding one foot, with her knee hugged to her chest — was rediscovered at the end of 2024 after last being sold in 1906, French auction house Rouillac said. Rodin, who lived from 1840-1917, made several versions of Le Désespoir. This particular sculpture was modelled in 1890 and sculpted from marble in 1892-1893. Measuring just 28.5cm by 15cm by 25cm, the sculpture was originally modelled to form part of Rodin's monumental work The Gates Of Hell which features more than 200 figures and groups. The previous owners — a family from central France — had no idea of its value and had displayed the sculpture on top of a piano alongside family photos, auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac told CNN. 'They said 'it's a fake, it's a copy',' Rouillac said, adding he nevertheless decided to investigate further. The details of this sculpture are striking, Rouillac told CNN. 'The back, the muscles, they are perfect,' he said. 'You can feel every vertebra in the spinal column.' Following his own investigation, Rouillac took the sculpture for assessment by the Comité Rodin, which maintains a catalogue of the artist's work. The detail on one of the feet of the sculpture. Credit: Guillaume Souvant/AFP via Getty Images Comité Rodin founder Jérôme Le Blay told CNN he was immediately struck by the 'exceptional' piece. 'I realised in a second that it was real,' he said. 'I had absolutely no doubt.' This particular example is 'extremely well made,' Le Blay said, adding it dates back to a period when Rodin was dedicating a huge amount of time to making a small number of sculptures. Rodin would have worked with assistants who would have carried out the initial work on a piece of marble, before he performed the final stages, he explained. According to Le Blay, the sculpture dates to 'one of the best moments of Rodin's career' before his growing fame meant he started to produce more and more works after the turn of the century. Upon his death, Rodin left his works to the Musée Rodin in Paris, as well as granting it permission to continue producing his bronze sculptures. While many of these posthumous bronzes go under the hammer each year, marbles are much harder to find, Le Blay said. Most of Rodin's marbles are owned by the Musée Rodin or by other large museums around the world. 'Marbles in private collections are rare,' he said, adding this piece has a 'kind of magic' due to the fact it has reappeared for sale after such a long time. In a 'passionate' auction, the top bid was made by a young banker from the US West Coast, according to the auction house.
7NEWS
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- 7NEWS
A family thought the sculpture on their piano was a ‘fake' Rodin. Now it's sold for more than $1.5 million
A sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin — which had disappeared from public view for almost 120 years and was thought to be a copy — has sold for €860,000 ($A1,507,783.20) at auction. Le Désespoir (Despair) — which shows a female figure sitting on a rock holding one foot, with her knee hugged to her chest — was rediscovered at the end of 2024 after last being sold in 1906, French auction house Rouillac said. Rodin, who lived from 1840-1917, made several versions of Le Désespoir. This particular sculpture was modelled in 1890 and sculpted from marble in 1892-1893. Measuring just 28.5cm by 15cm by 25cm, the sculpture was originally modelled to form part of Rodin's monumental work The Gates Of Hell which features more than 200 figures and groups. The previous owners — a family from central France — had no idea of its value and had displayed the sculpture on top of a piano alongside family photos, auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac told CNN. 'They said 'it's a fake, it's a copy',' Rouillac said, adding he nevertheless decided to investigate further. The details of this sculpture are striking, Rouillac told CNN. 'The back, the muscles, they are perfect,' he said. 'You can feel every vertebra in the spinal column.' Following his own investigation, Rouillac took the sculpture for assessment by the Comité Rodin, which maintains a catalogue of the artist's work. Comité Rodin founder Jérôme Le Blay told CNN he was immediately struck by the 'exceptional' piece. 'I realised in a second that it was real,' he said. 'I had absolutely no doubt.' This particular example is 'extremely well made,' Le Blay said, adding it dates back to a period when Rodin was dedicating a huge amount of time to making a small number of sculptures. Rodin would have worked with assistants who would have carried out the initial work on a piece of marble, before he performed the final stages, he explained. According to Le Blay, the sculpture dates to 'one of the best moments of Rodin's career' before his growing fame meant he started to produce more and more works after the turn of the century. Upon his death, Rodin left his works to the Musée Rodin in Paris, as well as granting it permission to continue producing his bronze sculptures. While many of these posthumous bronzes go under the hammer each year, marbles are much harder to find, Le Blay said. Most of Rodin's marbles are owned by the Musée Rodin or by other large museums around the world. 'Marbles in private collections are rare,' he said, adding this piece has a 'kind of magic' due to the fact it has reappeared for sale after such a long time. In a 'passionate' auction, the top bid was made by a young banker from the US West Coast, according to the auction house.
