Unfinished to the End: The Unexhibited Ariadne

This sculpture is Ariadne. Originally made at a small scale, it caught the eye of a gentleman who had lost his wife when it was shown at the 1905 Salon. He commissioned Rodin to create a tombstone for his wife's grave at Montparnasse Cemetery based on this design.

Having scaled up small sculptures into larger works many times before, Rodin set to work as soon as he received the commission. But he apparently misjudged the size of marble he'd need, and found himself unable to complete the piece within a single block. He explored various solutions, but none proved satisfactory. The client said he was happy with it as it was, but Rodin himself wasn't satisfied with the result, and in the end, he never delivered the piece — it remained unfinished. He never returned to it again, and it stayed in his studio exactly as it was until his death.

Look closely and you'll see the head is left unfinished, and a similarly incomplete, rough quality carries through the arms and legs. But there are parts that are fully resolved — the stomach and the back. The back, in particular, is said to be even more striking than the front, though unfortunately the piece is displayed facing forward, so you can't actually see it. By description alone, this figure's back is rendered with the taut, muscular build of a woman shaped by years of farm labor.