Jeanne BARDEY, née BRATTE (1872-1954). Head of a woman, also known as the Head of Chastity Terracotta. Bears no. 68 below the base H. 9.5 cm on a stone base H. 6.6 cm Related work : - Jeanne Bardey, Femme, dite aussi Tête de la Chasteté, before 1914, bronze on a green marble base, H. 15.5 cm, Paris, Musée d'Orsay, n°inv. RF3422 Related literature: - Camille Mauclair, "Madame Bardey", in L'art et les artistes, 1 April 1913, pp.129-137 - André Vessot, Jeanne Bardey, dernière élève de Rodin (Lyon 1872-1954), Édition Bellier, 2016 The last pupil of Auguste Rodin, Jeanne Bardey (1872-1954) was introduced to artistic practices such as drawing and painting at a very early age. She left her native Lyon in 1907 to study in Paris. She became a pupil of the painter and lithographer François Guiguet (1860-1937), who encouraged her to take up sculpture. It was near the Luxembourg Gardens, in a café, that she met the sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) in 1909. He decided to take her under his wing and teach her all the techniques of his art, particularly clay, which she eventually mastered perfectly. Close to her master, she became his model and his mistress. At the end of his life, Rodin designated Jeanne Bardey as his heir and wished to bequeath all his works to her. However, the French state refused and the dying sculptor agreed to a compromise. It was agreed that the artist would donate all his works to the museum that would bear his name, on condition that Jeanne Bardey would be its director. However, Jeanne Bardey was never appointed to the post, or to any other position in the institution. Nicknamed "Rodin's forgotten pupil", it was not until 1991 that the town of Mornant, near Lyon, finally devoted an exhibition to her, reviving her works that had long lain dormant in the reserves of the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lyon.