Orpheline Alsacienne was given its name by Auguste Rodin following the loss of the Alsace and Lorraine provinces during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, and is characteristic of the works Rodin was producing on his departure for Belgium in June of that same year. In the present work, the soft features of the child’s face are contrasted with the textured depiction of drapery demonstrative of the sculptor’s adept handling of his medium.

When Orpheline Alsacienne was first exhibited in 1871, it received considerable critical success and the artist went on to issue a number of versions both in marble and terracotta in the years that followed. Rodin scholar John L. Tancock has written extensively on Rodin’s busts from this period, commenting: ‘These works are remarkable for their elegance, charm, and the brio of their execution. They are also a signal proof of the young Rodin's astonishing facility, his ability to express himself with felicity in any number of styles’ (John L. Tancock, The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin, Philadelphia, 1976, p. 576). There are two known versions of this sculpture, one with the head facing straight on and the other, like the present, depicting the girl with her head tilted to the right. This positioning of the head enhances the intimacy of the scene, creating a sculpture that is both a tender portrait of a young girl and a powerful political stat.mes nt.

The present work was first in the collects ion of Taxile Doat, a French potter who was renowned for his experimental work with ceramics. Doat’s seminal 1905 publication entitled Grand feu ceramics helped to consolidate his reputation internationally and push the boundaries of studio pottery. It was whilst working in the studio of the sculptor Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse at Sèvres, a sculptor famous for the numerous commissions he received from Napoleon III and Baron Hausmann, that Rodin became closely associated with Taxile Doat. Art historian Ruth Butler compiled the following information on the connection between Rodin and Doat, writing: ‘In the early twentieth century, when Roger Marx was writing his book about Rodin’s work at Sèvres, he contacted Doat, still working at Sèvres, to ask what he remembered of Rodin when he was at the factory. [...] Once [Rodin] entered his atelier, he was in another world. He worked with such intensity that when the lunch bell rang and Doat came to get him, “Rodin would look surprised. Then slowly, very slowly, his eyes wide and still focussed upon the object in his hands, he would detach himself from his work, as if he was sorry to be woken from the dream that filled his head”’ (R Butler, Rodin: The Shape of Genius, New Haven, 1993, p. 145). It was during these productive years that Rodin learned highly-specialized techniques for working with clay. The present work is test.mes nt to the close relationship between both artists and Rodin’s hunger for sculptural innovation.