The Witches' Sabbath (recto); Sketches of Centaurs (verso)

Auguste Rodin · 1883/89

Medium

Gouache, with pen and black ink, over graphite (recto), and graphite (verso), on tan wove paper

Original size

19.1 × 14.6 cm (7 9/16 × 5 3/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Realism

Rodin's *The Witches' Sabbath* is a fever-dream on paper — swirling gouache figures conjured from graphite, inked in black, alive with the kind of restless energy that defined everything he made. Though celebrated as a sculptor, Rodin was a tireless draughtsman who produced thousands of works on paper throughout his career. These drawings were not preparatory studies in the conventional sense but independent explorations of the human form, mythology, and the unconscious. The combination of gouache wash, pen, and graphite on tan wove paper gives this piece a layered, atmospheric quality — shadows built up and dissolved, figures emerging from the surface rather than sitting on it. The verso, with its lighter centaur sketches in graphite alone, reveals how Rodin moved fluidly between the fantastical and the classical within a single session. Rodin was known to draw without looking at his paper, keeping his eyes fixed on the model — a practice that produced the charged, unbroken line visible throughout his works on paper. This hand-painted oil reproduction translates the original's tonal depth and textural richness onto canvas, preserving the interplay of wash and line that makes the work feel simultaneously ancient and fiercely modern.