LONDON.- One of Rodin's most adventurous compositions, La Jeunesse triomphante, is to be sold at Bonhams Impressionist and Modern Art sale in London on 23 June. It is estimated at £120,000-180,000.

It follows the highly successful sale of two Rodin masterpieces at Bonhams in recent months. L’Eternal Printemps sold at Bonhams London in February for £938,500 – a world record for a second state casting of the statue – and Eve was sold in New York in May in $1,060,000.

Like L’Eternal Printemps and Eve, La Jeunesse triomphante had its origins in Rodin’s career-defining commission for Portes de L’Enfer, awarded in 1880 by the Directorate of Fine Arts in Paris. Rodin worked on this commission for much of the rest of his life and it proved a well spring of creativity, inspiring a host of independent works.

Conceived in 1894, La Jeunesse triomphante combines features from two of the pieces created for Portes de L’Enfer - the outstretched figure of an adolescent woman from La Fatigue and the old woman from Celle qui fut la belle Heaulmière. The contradictory forms of these two figures – one plump of flesh, the other hunched and withered – create a shocking dynamic full of symbolism.

Rodin first presented the work in marble at the 1896 Paris Salon, under the title La Vieillesse et adolescence. He later added a pair of scissors to the back of the group, a reference to the aged figure of the Helmet Maker's wife, of the Fates from Greek mythology, who cuts the threads of life short.

Bonhams Director of Impressionist and Modern Art, India Phillips, said: “La Jeunesse triomphante is one of Rodin’s most expressive and psychologically challenging works. The high prices Bonhams achieved recently for two other outstanding works by the master demonstrates that Rodin’s appeal to collectors continues to be very strong. I expect La Jeunesse triomphante to be keenly contested.”