Auguste Rodin
1
Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
Birth name François-Auguste-René Rodin
Born
12 November 1840Paris
Died
17 November 1917 (aged 77)Meudon, Île-de-France
Nationality French
Field
Sculpture, drawing
Works
The Age of Bronze (L'age d'airain), 1877
The Walking Man (L'homme qui marche), 1877-78
The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais),
1889
The Kiss, 1889
The Thinker (Le Penseur), 1902
Awards
Légion d'Honneur
François-Auguste-René Rodin (12 November 1840 – 17 November 1917), known as Auguste Rodin (English
pronunciation: /oʊˈɡuːst roʊˈdæn/ oh-goost roh-dan, French pronunciation: [ogyst ʁɔdɛ̃]), was a French sculptor. Although
Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture,[1] he did not set out to rebel against the past. He
was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition,[2] although
he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art.
Sculpturally, Rodin possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay. Many
of his most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure
sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work
departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated
individual character and physicality. Rodin was sensitive of the controversy surrounding his work, but refused to
change his style. Successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.
From the unexpected realism of his first major figure—inspired by his 1875 trip to Italy—to the unconventional
memorials whose commissions he later sought, Rodin's reputation grew, such that he became the preeminent French
sculptor of his time. By 1900, he was a world-renowned artist. Wealthy private clients sought Rodin's work after his
World's Fair exhibit, and he kept company with a variety of high-profile intellectuals and artists. He married his
life-long companion, Rose Beuret, in the last year of both their lives. His sculpture suffered a decline in popularity
after his death in 1917, but within a few decades his legacy solidified. Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely
known outside the visual arts community.
Auguste Rodin
2
Biography
Formative years
Rodin was born in 1840 into a working-class family in
Paris, the second child of Marie Cheffer and
Jean-Baptiste Rodin, who was a police department
clerk. He was largely self-educated,[3] and began to
draw at age ten. Between ages 14 and 17, Rodin
attended the Petite École, a school specializing in art
and mathematics, where he studied drawing and
painting. His drawing teacher, Horace Lecoq de
Boisbaudran, believed in first developing the
personality of his students so that they observed with
their own eyes and drew from their recollections. Rodin
still expressed appreciation for his teacher much later in
life.[4] There he first met Jules Dalou and Alphonse
Legros.
Rodin's signature on The Thinker
Rodin submitted a clay model of a companion to the Grand École in 1857 in an attempt to win entrance; he did not
succeed, and two further applications were also denied.[5] Given that entrance requirements at the Grand École were
not particularly high,[6] the rejections were considerable setbacks. Rodin's inability to gain entrance may have been
due to the judges' Neoclassical tastes, while Rodin had been schooled in light, 18th-century sculpture. Leaving the
Petite École in 1857, Rodin would earn a living as a craftsman and ornamenter for most of the next two decades,
producing decorative objects and architectural embellishments.
Rodin's sister Maria, two years his senior, died of peritonitis in a convent in 1862. Her brother was anguished, and
felt guilty because he had introduced Maria to an unfaithful suitor. Turning away from art, Rodin briefly joined a
Catholic order. Father Peter Julian Eymard recognized Rodin's talent and, sensing his lack of suitability for the order,
encouraged Rodin to continue with his sculpture. He returned to work as a decorator, while taking classes with
animal sculptor Antoine-Louis Barye. The teacher's attention to detail—his finely rendered musculature of animals
in motion—significantly influenced Rodin.[7]
In 1864, Rodin began to live with a young seamstress named Rose Beuret, with whom he would stay—with ranging
commitment—for the rest of his life. The couple bore a son, Auguste-Eugène Beuret (1866–1934).[8] That year,
Rodin offered his first sculpture for exhibition, and entered the studio of Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, a successful
mass producer of objets d'art. Rodin worked as Carrier-Belleuse' chief assistant until 1870, designing roof
decorations and staircase and doorway embellishments. With the arrival of the Franco-Prussian War, Rodin was
called to serve in the National Guard, but his service was brief due to his near-sightedness.[9] Decorators' work had
dwindled because of the war, yet Rodin needed to support his family—poverty was a continual difficulty for Rodin
until about the age of 30.[10] Carrier-Belleuse soon asked Rodin to join him in Belgium, where they would work on
ornamentation for Brussels' bourse.
Rodin planned to stay in Belgium a few months, but he spent the next six years abroad. It was a pivotal time in
Rodin's life.[10] He had acquired skill and experience as a craftsman, but no one had yet seen his art, which sat in his
workshop, since Rodin could not afford castings. Though his relationship with Carrier-Belleuse deteriorated, he
found other employment in Brussels, displayed some works at salons, and his companion Rose soon joined him
there. Having saved enough money to travel, Rodin visited Italy for two months in 1875, where he was drawn to the
work of Donatello and Michelangelo. Their work had a profound effect on his artistic direction.[11] Rodin said, "It is
Michelangelo who has freed me from academic sculpture."[12] Returning to Belgium, he began work on The Age of
Auguste Rodin
3
Bronze, a life-size male figure whose realism brought Rodin attention but led to accusations of sculptural cheating.
Artistic independence
Rodin in 1893
Rose Beuret and Rodin returned to Paris in 1877, moving into a small
flat on the Left Bank. Misfortune surrounded Rodin: his mother, who
had wanted to see her son marry, was dead, and his father was blind
and senile, cared for by Rodin's sister-in-law, Aunt Thérèse. Rodin's
eleven-year-old son Auguste, possibly developmentally delayed, was
also in the ever-helpful Thérèse's care. Rodin had essentially
abandoned his son for six years,[13] and would have a very limited
relationship with him throughout his life. Father and son now joined
the couple in their flat, with Rose as caretaker. The charges of fakery
surrounding The Age of Bronze continued. Rodin increasingly sought
more soothing female companionship in Paris, and Rose stayed in the
background.
Rodin earned his living collaborating with more established sculptors on public commissions, primarily memorials
and neo-baroque architectural pieces in the style of Carpeaux.[14] In competitions for commissions he submitted
models of Denis Diderot, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and Lazare Carnot, all to no avail. On his own time, he worked on
studies leading to the creation of his next important work, St. John the Baptist Preaching.
In 1880, Carrier-Belleuse—now art director of the Sèvres national porcelain factory—offered Rodin a part-time
position as a designer. The offer was in part a gesture of reconciliation, and Rodin accepted. That part of Rodin
which appreciated 18th-century tastes was aroused, and he immersed himself in designs for vases and table
ornaments that brought the factory renown across Europe.[15] The artistic community appreciated his work in this
vein, and Rodin was invited to Paris Salons by such friends as writer Léon Cladel. During his early appearances at
these social events, Rodin seemed shy;[16] in his later years, as his fame grew, he displayed the loquaciousness and
temperament for which he is better known. French statesman Leon Gambetta expressed a desire to meet Rodin, and
the sculptor impressed him when they met at a salon. Gambetta spoke of Rodin in turn to several government
ministers, likely including Edmund Turquet, the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Fine Arts, whom Rodin
eventually met.[16]
Rodin's relationship with Turquet was rewarding: through him, he won the 1880
commission to create a portal for a planned museum of decorative arts. Rodin
dedicated much of the next four decades to his elaborate Gates of Hell, an
unfinished portal for a museum that was never built. Many of the portal's figures
became sculptures in themselves, including Rodin's most famous, The Thinker
and The Kiss. With the museum commission came a free studio, granting Rodin a
new level of artistic freedom. Soon, he stopped working at the porcelain factory;
his income came from private commissions.
In 1883, Rodin agreed to supervise a course for sculptor Alfred Boucher in his
absence, where he met the 18-year-old Camille Claudel. The two formed a
passionate but stormy relationship and influenced each other artistically. Claudel
inspired Rodin as a model for many of his figures, and she was a talented
sculptor, assisting him on commissions.
Camille Claudel (1864–1943)
Although busy with The Gates of Hell, Rodin won other commissions. He pursued an opportunity to create a
historical monument for the town of Calais. For a monument to French author Honoré de Balzac, Rodin was chosen
Auguste Rodin
in 1891. His execution of both sculptures clashed with traditional tastes, and met with varying degrees of disapproval
from the organizations that sponsored the commissions. Still, Rodin was gaining support from diverse sources that
propelled him toward fame.
In 1889, the Paris Salon invited Rodin to be a judge on its artistic jury. Though Rodin's career was on the rise,
Claudel and Beuret were becoming increasingly impatient with Rodin's "double life". Claudel and Rodin shared an
atelier at a small old castle, but Rodin refused to relinquish his ties to Beuret, his loyal companion during the lean
years, and mother of his son. During one absence, Rodin wrote to Beuret, "I think of how much you must have loved
me to put up with my caprices…I remain, in all tenderness, your Rodin."[17] Claudel and Rodin parted in 1898.[18]
Claudel suffered a nervous breakdown several years later and was confined to an institution by her family until her
death.
Works
In 1864, Rodin submitted his first sculpture for exhibition, The Man with the Broken Nose, to the Paris Salon. The
subject was an elderly neighbourhood street porter. The unconventional bronze piece was not a traditional bust, but
instead the head was "broken off" at the neck, the nose was flattened and crooked, and the back of the head was
absent, having fallen off the clay model in an accident. The work emphasized texture and the emotional state of the
subject; it illustrated the "unfinishedness" that would characterize many of Rodin's later sculptures.[19] The Salon
rejected the piece.
Early figures: the inspiration of Italy
In Brussels, Rodin created his first full-scale work, The Age of Bronze, having
returned from Italy. Modelled by a Belgian soldier, the figure drew inspiration
from Michelangelo's Dying Slave, which Rodin had observed at the Louvre.
Attempting to combine Michelangelo's mastery of the human form with his own
sense of human nature, Rodin studied his model from all angles, at rest and in
motion; he mounted a ladder for additional perspective, and made clay models,
which he studied by candlelight. The result was a life-size, well-proportioned
nude figure, posed unconventionally with his right hand atop his head, and his
left arm held out at his side, forearm parallel to the body.
In 1877, the work debuted in Brussels and then was shown at the Paris Salon.
The statue's apparent lack of a theme was troubling to critics—commemorating
neither mythology nor a noble historical event—and it is not clear whether Rodin
intended a theme.[20] He first titled the work The Vanquished, in which form the
left hand held a spear, but he removed the spear because it obstructed the torso
The Age of Bronze (1877)
from certain angles. After two more intermediary titles, Rodin settled on The Age
of Bronze, suggesting the Bronze Age, and in Rodin's words, "man arising from
nature".[21] Later, however, Rodin said that he had had in mind "just a simple piece of sculpture without reference to
subject".[21]
Its mastery of form, light, and shadow made the work look so realistic that Rodin was accused of
surmoulage—having taken a cast from a living model. Rodin vigorously denied the charges, writing to newspapers
and having photographs taken of the model to prove how the sculpture differed. He demanded an inquiry and was
eventually exonerated by a committee of sculptors. Leaving aside the false charges, the piece polarized critics. It had
barely won acceptance for display at the Paris Salon, and criticism likened it to "a statue of a sleepwalker" and called
it "an astonishingly accurate copy of a low type".[21] Others rallied to defend the piece and Rodin's integrity. The
government minister Turquet admired the piece, and The Age of Bronze was purchased by the state for 2,200
4
Auguste Rodin
5
francs—what it had cost Rodin to have it cast in bronze.[21]
A second male nude, St. John the Baptist Preaching, was completed in 1878.
Rodin sought to avoid another charge of surmoulage by making the statue larger
than life: St. John stands almost 6' 7'' (2 m). While The Age of Bronze is statically
posed, St. John gestures and seems to move toward the viewer. The effect of
walking is achieved despite the figure having both feet firmly on the ground—a
physical impossibility, and a technical achievement that was lost on most
contemporary critics.[22] Rodin chose this contradictory position to, in his words,
"display simultaneously…views of an object which in fact can be seen only
successively".[23] Despite the title, St. John the Baptist Preaching did not have an
obviously religious theme. The model, an Italian peasant who presented himself
at Rodin's studio, possessed an idiosyncratic sense of movement that Rodin felt
compelled to capture. Rodin thought of John the Baptist, and carried that
association into the title of the work.[23] In 1880, Rodin submitted the sculpture
to the Paris Salon. Critics were still mostly dismissive of his work, but the piece
finished third in the Salon's sculpture category.[23]
St. John the Baptist Preaching
(1878)
Regardless of the immediate receptions of St. John and The Age of Bronze, Rodin
had achieved a new degree of fame. Students sought him at his studio, praising
his work and scorning the charges of surmoulage. The artistic community knew
his name.
The Gates of Hell
A commission to create a portal for Paris' planned Museum of Decorative Arts
was awarded to Rodin in 1880.[14] Although the museum was never built, Rodin
worked throughout his life on The Gates of Hell, a monumental sculptural group
depicting scenes from Dante's Inferno in high relief. Often lacking a clear
conception of his major works, Rodin compensated with hard work and a striving
for perfection.[24] He conceived The Gates with the surmoulage controversy still
in mind: "…I had made the St. John to refute [the charges of casting from a
model], but it only partially succeeded. To prove completely that I could model
from life as well as other sculptors, I determined…to make the sculpture on the
door of figures smaller than life."[24] Laws of composition gave way to the Gates'
disordered and untamed depiction of Hell. The figures and groups in this, Rodin's
meditation on the condition of man, are physically and morally isolated in their
torment.[25]
The Gates of Hell (unfinished),
The Gates of Hell comprised 186 figures in its final form.[25] Many of Rodin's
Musée Rodin
best-known sculptures started as designs of figures for this composition,[7] such
as The Thinker, The Three Shades, and The Kiss, and were only later presented as
separate and independent works. Other well-known works derived from The Gates are Ugolino, Fugit Amor, The
Falling Man, and The Prodigal Son.
The Thinker (originally titled The Poet, after Dante) was to become one of the most well-known sculptures in the
world. The original was a 27.5-inch (700 mm)-high bronze piece created between 1879 and 1889, designed for the
Gates' lintel, from which the figure would gaze down upon Hell. While The Thinker most obviously characterizes
Dante, aspects of the Biblical Adam, the mythological Prometheus,[14] and Rodin himself have been ascribed to
him.[26] [27] Other observers de-emphasize the apparent intellectual theme of The Thinker, stressing the figure's
Auguste Rodin
6
rough physicality and the emotional tension emanating from it.[28]
The Burghers of Calais
The town of Calais had contemplated an historical monument for
decades when Rodin learned of the project. He pursued the
commission, interested in the medieval motif and patriotic theme. The
mayor of Calais was tempted to hire Rodin on the spot upon visiting
his studio, and soon the memorial was approved, with Rodin as its
architect. It would commemorate the six townspeople of Calais who
offered their lives to save their fellow citizens. During the Hundred
Years' War, the army of King Edward III besieged Calais, and Edward
The Burghers of Calais (1884–c. 1889) in
Victoria Tower Gardens, London, England
ordered that the town's population be killed en masse. He agreed to
spare them if six of the principal citizens would come to him prepared
to die, bareheaded and barefooted and with ropes around their necks. When they came, he ordered that they be
executed, but pardoned them when his queen, Philippa of Hainault, begged him to spare their lives. The Burghers of
Calais depicts the men as they are leaving for the king's camp, carrying keys to the town's gates and citadel.
Rodin began the project in 1884, inspired by the chronicles of the siege by Jean Froissart.[29] Though the town
envisioned an allegorical, heroic piece centered on Eustache de Saint-Pierre, the eldest of the six men, Rodin
conceived the sculpture as a study in the varied and complex emotions under which all six men were laboring. One
year into the commission, the Calais committee was not impressed with Rodin's progress. Rodin indicated his
willingness to end the project rather than change his design to meet the committee's conservative expectations, but
Calais said to continue.
In 1889, The Burghers of Calais was first displayed to general acclaim. It is a bronze sculpture weighing two tons
(1,814 kg), and its figures are 6.6 ft (2 m) tall.[29] The six men portrayed do not display a united, heroic front;[30]
rather, each is isolated from his brothers, individually deliberating and struggling with his expected fate. Rodin soon
proposed that the monument's high pedestal be eliminated, wanting to move the sculpture to ground level so that
viewers could "penetrate to the heart of the subject".[31] At ground level, the figures' positions lead the viewer around
the work, and subtly suggest their common movement forward.[32] The committee was incensed by the untraditional
proposal, but Rodin would not yield. In 1895, Calais succeeded in having Burghers displayed in their preferred form:
the work was placed in front of a public garden on a high platform, surrounded by a cast-iron railing. Rodin had
wanted it located near the town hall, where it would engage the public. Only after damage during the First World
War, subsequent storage, and Rodin's death was the sculpture displayed as he had intended. It is one of Rodin's most
well-known and acclaimed works.[29]
Auguste Rodin
7
Commissions and controversy
Commissioned to create a monument to French
writer Victor Hugo in 1889, Rodin dealt
extensively with the subject of artist and muse.
Like many of Rodin's public commissions,
Monument to Victor Hugo was met with
resistance because it did not fit conventional
expectations. Commenting on Rodin's monument
to Victor Hugo, The Times in 1909 expressed that
"there is some show of reason in the complaint
that [Rodin's] conceptions are sometimes unsuited
to his medium, and that in such cases they
overstrain his vast technical powers".[33] The
1897 plaster model was not cast in bronze until
1964.
Rodin observing work on the monument to Victor Hugo at the studio of his
assistant Henri Lebossé in 1896
The Société des Gens des Lettres, a Parisian organization of writers, planned a monument to French novelist Honoré
de Balzac immediately after his death in 1850. The society commissioned Rodin to create the memorial in 1891, and
Rodin spent years developing the concept for his sculpture. Challenged in finding an appropriate representation of
Balzac given the author's rotund physique, Rodin produced many studies: portraits, full-length figures in the nude,
wearing a frock coat, or in a robe—a replica of which Rodin had requested. The realized sculpture displays Balzac
cloaked in the drapery, looking forcefully into the distance with deeply gouged features. Rodin's intent had been to
show Balzac at the moment of conceiving a work[34] —to express courage, labor, and struggle.[35]
When Balzac was exhibited in 1898, the negative reaction was not
surprising.[26] The Société rejected the work, and the press ran
parodies. Criticizing the work, Morey (1918) reflected, "there may
come a time, and doubtless will come a time, when it will not seem
outre to represent a great novelist as a huge comic mask crowning a
bathrobe, but even at the present day this statue impresses one as
[7]
slang." A modern critic, indeed, indicates that Balzac is one of
Rodin's masterpieces.[36] The monument had its supporters in Rodin's
day; a manifesto defending him was signed by Monet, Debussy, and
future Premier Georges Clemenceau, among many others.[37]
Rather than try to convince skeptics of the merit of the monument,
Rodin repaid the Société his commission and moved the figure to his
garden. After this experience, Rodin did not complete another public
commission. Only in 1939 was Monument to Balzac cast in bronze.
Other works
Monument to Balzac (1891–1898)
The popularity of Rodin's most famous sculptures tends to obscure his
total creative output. A prolific artist, he created thousands of busts,
figures, and sculptural fragments over more than five decades. He painted in oils (especially in his thirties) and in
watercolors. The Musée Rodin holds 7,000 of his drawings and prints, in chalk and charcoal, and thirteen vigorous
drypoints.[38] [39] He also produced a single lithograph.
Auguste Rodin
8
Portraiture was an important component of Rodin's oeuvre, helping him to win acceptance and financial
independence.[40] His first sculpture was a bust of his father in 1860, and he produced at least 56 portraits between
1877 and his death in 1917.[41] Early subjects included fellow sculptor Jules Dalou (1883) and companion Camille
Claudel (1884). Later, with his reputation established, Rodin made busts of prominent contemporaries such as
English politician George Wyndham (1905), Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw (1906), Austrian composer
Gustav Mahler (1909), former Argentinian president Domingo Faustino Sarmiento and French statesman Georges
Clemenceau (1911).
Aesthetic
Rodin was a naturalist, less concerned with monumental expression
than with character and emotion.[42] Departing with centuries of
tradition, he turned away from the idealism of the Greeks, and the
decorative beauty of the Baroque and neo-Baroque movements. His
sculpture emphasized the individual and the concreteness of flesh, and
suggested emotion through detailed, textured surfaces, and the
interplay of light and shadow. To a greater degree than his
contemporaries, Rodin believed that an individual's character was
revealed by his physical features.[2]
Rodin's talent for surface modeling allowed him to let every part of the
body speak for the whole. The male's passion in The Kiss is suggested
by the grip of his toes on the rock, the rigidness of his back, and the
differentiation of his hands.[7] Speaking of The Thinker, Rodin
illuminated his aesthetic: "What makes my Thinker think is that he
thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended
nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back,
and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes."[43]
A famous "fragment": The Walking Man
Sculptural fragments to Rodin were autonomous works, and he considered them the essence of his artistic statement.
His fragments—perhaps lacking arms, legs, or a head—took sculpture further from its traditional role of portraying
likenesses, and into a realm where forms existed for their own sake.[44] Notable examples are The Walking Man,
Meditation without Arms, and Iris, Messenger of the Gods.
Rodin saw suffering and conflict as hallmarks of modern art. "Nothing, really, is more moving than the maddened
beast, dying from unfulfilled desire and asking in vain for grace to quell its passion."[27] Charles Baudelaire echoed
those themes, and was among Rodin's favorite poets. Rodin enjoyed music, especially the opera composer Gluck,
and wrote a book about French cathedrals. He owned a work by the as-yet-unrecognized Van Gogh, and admired the
forgotten El Greco.[45]
Auguste Rodin
9
Method
Instead of copying traditional academic postures, Rodin preferred to
work with amateur models, street performers, acrobats, strong men,
and dancers. In the atelier, his models moved about and took positions
without manipulation.[7] Very devoted to his craft, Rodin worked
constantly but not feverishly. The sculptor made quick sketches in clay
that were later fine-tuned, cast in plaster, and forged into bronze or
carved in marble. Rodin was fascinated by dance and spontaneous
movement. As France's best-known sculptor, he had a large staff of
pupils, craftsmen, and stone cutters working for him, including the
A plaster of The Age of Bronze
Czech sculptors Josef Maratka and Joseph Kratina. Through his
method of marcottage (layering), he used the same sculptural elements
time and time again, under different names and in different combinations. Disliking the formality of pedestals, Rodin
placed many of his subjects around rough rock to emphasize their immediacy and provide contrast.[46]
George Bernard Shaw sat for a portrait and gave an idea of Rodin's technique: "While he worked, he achieved a
number of miracles. At the end of the first fifteen minutes, after having given a simple idea of the human form to the
block of clay, he produced by the action of his thumb a bust so living that I would have taken it away with me to
relieve the sculptor of any further work." He described the evolution of his bust over a month, passing through "all
the stages of art's evolution": first, a "Byzantine masterpiece", then "Bernini intermingled", then an elegant Houdon.
"The hand of Rodin worked not as the hand of a sculptor works, but as the work of Elan Vital. The Hand of God is
his own hand."[47]
Later years
A portrait of Rodin by his friend Alphonse
Legros
Rodin and America
By 1900, Rodin's artistic reputation was entrenched. Gaining exposure
from a pavilion of his artwork set up near the 1900 World's Fair
(Exposition Universelle) in Paris, he received requests to make busts of
prominent people internationally,[26] while his assistants at the atelier
produced duplicates of his works. His income from portrait
commissions alone totalled probably 200,000 francs a year.[48] As
Rodin's fame grew, he attracted many followers, including the German
poet Rainer Maria Rilke, and authors Octave Mirbeau, Joris-Karl
Huysmans, and Oscar Wilde.[30] Rilke stayed with Rodin in 1905 and
1906, and did administrative work for him; he would later write a
laudatory monograph on the sculptor. Rodin and Beuret's modest
country estate in Meudon, purchased in 1897, was a host to such
visitors as King Edward, dancer Isadora Duncan, and harpsichordist
Wanda Landowska. Rodin moved to the city in 1908, renting the main
floor of the Hôtel Biron, an 18th-century townhouse. He left Beuret in
Meudon, and began an affair with the American-born Duchesse de
Choiseul.[49]
Auguste Rodin
While Rodin was beginning to be accepted in France by the time of The Burghers of Calais, he had not yet
conquered the American market and because of his technique and the frankness of some of his work, he did not have
an easy time selling his work to American industrialists. Fortunately, he came to know Sarah Tyson Hallowell
(1846–1924), a curator from Chicago who visited Paris to arrange exhibitions at the large Interstate Expositions of
the 1870s and 1880s. Hallowell was not only a curator but an adviser and a facilitator who was trusted by a number
of prominent American collectors to suggest works for their collections, the most prominent of these being the
Chicago hotelier Potter Palmer and his wife, Bertha Palmer (1849–1918). The next opportunity for Rodin in
America was the 1893 Chicago World's Fair.[50] Hallowell wanted to help promote Rodin's work and he suggested a
solo exhibition, which she wrote him was beaucoup moins beau que l'original but impossible, outside the rules.
Instead, she suggested he send a number of works for her loan exhibition of French art from American collections
and she told him she would list them as being part of an American collection.[51] Rodin sent Hallowell three works,
Cupid and Psyche, Sphinx and Andromeda. All nudes, these works provoked great controversy and were ultimately
hidden behind a drape with special permission given for viewers to see them.[52] Fortunately, Bust of Dalou and
Burgher of Calais were on display in the official French pavilion at the fair and so between the works that were on
display and those that were not, he was noticed. However, the works he gave Hallowell to sell found no takers, but
she soon brought the controversial Quaker-born financier Charles Yerkes (1837–1905) into the fold and he
purchased two large marbles for his Chicago manse;[52] Yerkes was likely the first American to own a Rodin
sculpture.[53] Other collectors soon followed including the tastemaking Potter Palmers of Chicago and Isabella
Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) of Boston, all arranged by Sarah Hallowell. In appreciation for her efforts at
unlocking the American market, Rodin eventually presented Hallowell with a bronze, a marble and a terra cotta.
When Hallowell moved to Paris in 1893, she and Rodin continued their warm friendship and correspondence, which
lasted to the end of the sculptor's life.[54] After Hallowell's death, her niece, the painter Harriet Hallowell, inherited
the Rodin's and after her death, the American heirs could not manage to match their value in order to export them, so
they became the property of the French state.[55]
Great Britain
After the turn of the century, Rodin was a regular visitor to Great Britain, where he developed a loyal following by
the beginning of the First World War. He first visited England in 1881, where his friend, the artist Alphonse Legros,
had introduced him to the poet William Ernest Henley. With his personal connections and enthusiasm for Rodin's art,
Henley was most responsible for Rodin's reception in Britain.[56] (Rodin later returned the favor by sculpting a bust
of Henley that was used as the frontispiece to Henley's collected works[57] and, after his death, on his monument in
London.[58] ) Through Henley, Rodin met Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Browning, in whom he found further
support.[59] Encouraged by the enthusiasm of British artists, students, and high society for his art, Rodin donated a
significant selection of his works to the nation in 1914.
10
Auguste Rodin
11
After the revitalization of the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in
1890, Rodin served as the body's vice-president.[60] In 1903, Rodin
was elected president of the International Society of Painters,
Sculptors, and Engravers. He replaced its former president, James
Abbott McNeill Whistler, upon Whistler's death. His election to the
prestigious position was largely due to the efforts of Albert Ludovici,
father of English philosopher Anthony Ludovici.
During his later creative years, Rodin's work turned increasingly
toward the female form, and themes of more overt masculinity and
femininity.[26] He concentrated on small dance studies, and produced
numerous erotic drawings, sketched in a loose way, without taking his
pencil from the paper or his eyes from the model. Rodin met American
dancer Isadora Duncan in 1900, attempted to seduce her,[61] and the
next year sketched studies of her and her students. In July 1906, Rodin
was also enchanted by dancers from the Royal Ballet of Cambodia, and
produced some of his most famous drawings from the experience.[62]
Rodin in 1914
Fifty-three years into their relationship, Rodin married Rose Beuret.
The wedding was 29 January 1917, and Beuret died two weeks later, on 16 February.[63] Rodin was ill that year; in
January, he suffered weakness from influenza,[64] and on 16 November his physician announced that "congestion of
the lungs has caused great weakness. The patient's condition is grave."[63] Rodin died the next day, age 77, at his
villa in Meudon, Île-de-France, on the outskirts of Paris.[5] A cast of The Thinker was placed next to his tomb in
Meudon; it was Rodin's wish that the figure serve as his headstone and epitaph.[65] In 1923, Marcell Tirel, Rodin's
secretary, published a book alleging that Rodin's death was largely due to cold, and the fact that he had no heat at
Meudon. Rodin requested permission to stay in the Hotel Biron, a museum of his works, but the director of the
museum refused to let him stay there.[66] [67]
Legacy
Rodin willed to the French state his studio and the right to make casts
from his plasters. Because he encouraged the edition of his sculpted
work, Rodin's sculptures are represented in many public and private
collections. The Musée Rodin was founded in 1916 and opened in
1919 at the Hôtel Biron, where Rodin had lived, and it holds the largest
Rodin collection, with more than 6,000 sculptures and 7,000 works on
paper. The relative ease of making reproductions has also encouraged
many forgeries: a survey of expert opinion placed Rodin in the top ten
most-faked artists.[68] Rodin fought against forgeries of his works as
The grounds of Musée Rodin
early as 1901, and since his death, many cases of organized, large-scale
forgeries have been revealed. A massive forgery was discovered by
French authorities in the early 1990s and led to the conviction of art dealer Guy Hain.[69]
To deal with the complexity of bronze reproduction, France has promulgated several laws since 1956 which limit
reproduction to twelve casts—the maximum number that can be made from an artist's plasters and still be considered
his work. As a result of this limit, The Burghers of Calais, for example, is found in fourteen cities.[29]
In the market for sculpture, plagued by fakes, the value of a piece increases significantly when its provenance can be
established. A Rodin work with a verified history sold for US$4.8 million in 1999,[70] and Rodin's bronze Eve, grand
modele—version sans rocher sold for $18.9 million at a 2008 Christie's auction in New York.[71] Art critics
Auguste Rodin
12
concerned about authenticity have argued that taking a cast does not equal reproducing a Rodin
sculpture—especially given the importance of surface treatment in Rodin's work.[72]
During his lifetime, Rodin was compared to Michelangelo,[27] and was
widely recognized as the greatest artist of the era.[73] In the three
decades following his death, his popularity waned with changing
aesthetic values.[73] Since the 1950s, Rodin's reputation has
re-ascended;[45] he is recognized as the most important sculptor of the
modern era, and has been the subject of much scholarly work.[73] [74]
The sense of incompletion offered by some of his sculpture, such as
The Walking Man, influenced the increasingly abstract sculptural forms
of the 20th century.[75] Though highly honoured for his artistic
accomplishments, Rodin did not spawn a significant, lasting school of
followers. His notable students included Antoine Bourdelle, Charles
Despiau, the American Malvina Hoffman, and his mistress Camille
Claudel, whose sculpture received praise in France. The French order
Légion d'honneur made him a Commander, and he received an
honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford.
The Thinker (1879–1889) is among the most
recognized works in all of sculpture.
Rodin restored an ancient role of sculpture—to capture the physical
and intellectual force of the human subject[74] —and he freed sculpture
from the repetition of traditional patterns, providing the foundation for greater experimentation in the 20th century.
His popularity is ascribed to his emotion-laden representations of ordinary men and women—to his ability to find the
beauty and pathos in the human animal. His most popular works, such as The Kiss and The Thinker, are widely used
outside the fine arts as symbols of human emotion and character.[76]
Notes
[1] Tucker, 16.
[2] Hale, 76.
[3] "(François) Auguste (René) Rodin." International Dictionary of Art and Artists. St. James Press, 1990. Reproduced in Biography Resource
Center. Farmington Hills, Mich.: Thomson Gale. 2006.
[4] Jianou & Goldscheider, 31.
[5] "Rodin, Famous Sculptor, Dead". The New York Times: p. E3. 18 November 1917.
[6] Hale, 40.
[7] Morey, C. R. (1918). "The Art of Auguste Rodin" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 3046338). The Bulletin of the College Art Association of America
1 (4): 145–154. doi:10.2307/3046338. .
[8] Date of death from Elsen, 206.
[9] Jianou & Goldscheider, 34.
[10] Jianou & Goldscheider, 35.
[11] Hale, 49–50.
[12] Taillandier, 91.
[13] Hale, 65.
[14] Janson, 638.
[15] Hale, 70.
[16] Hale, 71.
[17] Hale, 75.
[18] Ward-Jackson, Philip. "(1) Camille Claudel" (http:/ / www. groveart. com/ shared/ views/ article. html?section=art. 018005. 1). Grove Art
Online, Oxford University Press. . Retrieved 19 December 2006.
[19] Janson, 637.
[20] Hale, 50.
[21] Hale, 51.
[22] Hale, 80.
[23] Hale, 68.
Auguste Rodin
[24] Elsen, 35.
[25] Jianou & Goldscheider, 41.
[26] Bell, Millicent (Spring 2005). "Auguste Rodin". Raritan 14: 1–31.
[27] Alhadeff, Albert (1966). "Rodin: A Self-Portrait in the Gates of Hell" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 3048395). The Art Bulletin 48 (3/4):
393–395. doi:10.2307/3048395. .
[28] Taillandier, 42, 46, 48.
[29] Swedberg, Richard (2005). "Auguste Rodin's The Burghers of Calais: The Career of a Sculpture and its Appeal to Civic Heroism". Theory,
Culture, & Society 22 (2): 45–67. doi:10.1177/0263276405051665.
[30] Stocker, Mark (November 2006). "A simple sculptor or an apostle of perversion?". Apollo 164 (537): 94–97.
[31] Hale, 117.
[32] Hale, 115
[33] "M. Rodin and French Sculpture.". The Times. 4 October 1909. p. 12.
[34] "Auguste Rodin. His Sculpture And Its Aims.". The Times. 19 November 1917. p. 11.
[35] Hale, 136.
[36] Schor, Naomi (2001). "Pensive Texts and Thinking Statues: Balzac with Rodin". Critical Inquiry 27 (2): 239–264. doi:10.1086/449007.
[37] Hale, 122.
[38] Hale, 12.
[39] Varnedoe, Kirk (April 1974). "Early Drawings by Auguste Rodin". The Burlington Magazine 116 (853): 197–204.
[40] Hale, 82.
[41] Hare, Marion J. (1987). "Rodin and His English Sitters". The Burlington Magazine 129 (1011): 372–381.
[42] "Art Exhibitions: Auguste Rodin". The Times. 14 July 1931. p. 12.
[43] "NGA Sculpture Galleries: Auguste Rodin" (http:/ / www. nga. gov/ collection/ sculpture/ flash/ zone2-2. htm) (Adobe Flash). National
Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. . Retrieved 12 December 2006.
[44] Hale, 69.
[45] Werner, Alfred (1960). "The Return of Auguste Rodin". Criticism 2 (1): 48–54.
[46] Taillandier, 31.
[47] Quoted in Jianou & Goldscheider, 62.
[48] Hale, 147.
[49] Julius, Muriel (January 1987). "Human Emotion Made Tangible - The Work of Auguste Rodin". Contemporary Review 250 (1452): 41.
[50] The Indefatigable Miss Hallowell, Page 6
[51] Rodin: The Shape of Genius, Page 399
[52] The Documented Image, Page 97
[53] Franch, John (2006). Robber Baron: The Life of Charles Tyson Yerkes. Urbana: University of Illinois Press; p. 209.
[54] Extensive correspondence in Musee Rodin
[55] The indefatigable Miss Hallowell, page 8
[56] Newton, Joy (1994). "'Rodin Is a British Institution'". The Burlington Magazine 136 (1101): 822–828.
[57] Dictionary of National Biography, p.244 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=2aNqbQuwZZcC& pg=PA244& lpg=PA246& dq=Henley+
Rodin& ie=ISO-8859-1& output=html)
[58] Dictionary of National Biography, p. 246 (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=2aNqbQuwZZcC& pg=PA244& lpg=PA246&
dq=Henley+ Rodin& ie=ISO-8859-1& output=html)
[59] Hale, 73.
[60] "Biography" (http:/ / www. musee-rodin. fr/ biotx-e. htm). Musée Rodin. . Retrieved 15 April 2007.
[61] Hale, 10.
[62] Kinetz, Erica (27 December 2006). "Rodin Show Visits Home Of Artist's Muses". The New York Times. p. E1.
[63] "Auguste Rodin Gravely Ill". The New York Times: p. 13. 17 November 1917.
[64] "Auguste Rodin Has Grip". The New York Times: p. 3. 30 January 1917.
[65] Elsen, 52.
[66] "Art: Rodin's Death" (http:/ / www. time. com/ time/ magazine/ article/ 0,9171,727018,00. html). Time. 24 March 1923. .
[67] Fenster, Bob (2000). Duh!: The Stupid History of the Human Race. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel. p. 99. ISBN 0-7407-1002-8.
[68] Esterow, Milton (June 2005). "The 10 Most Faked Artists" (http:/ / artnews. com/ issues/ article. asp?art_id=1853). ARTnews. . Retrieved 5
February 2007.
[69] http:/ / www. artclair. com/ jda/ archives/ docs_article/ 49618/ proces-guy-hain-une-decision-qui-fera-jurisprudence. php
[70] Winship, Frederick M. (16 September 2002). "Bogus bronzes flood market: an estimated 4,000 fake castings have put the market for 19thand 20th-century bronze sculpture in jeopardy". Insight on the News 26 (1).
[71] "Monet fetches record price at New York auction" (http:/ / afp. google. com/ article/ ALeqM5jJ-nuOHmXSBq7_MFQrllsC6jrt4A). AFP. .
Retrieved 8 May 2008.
[72] Gibson, Eric (2005). "The real Rodin". New Criterion 24 (4): 37–40.
[73] Hunisak, John M. (1981). "Rodin Rediscovered" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 776450). Art Journal 41 (4): 370–371. doi:10.2307/776450. .
13
Auguste Rodin
[74] Gardner, Albert Ten Eyck (1957). "The Hand of Rodin" (http:/ / jstor. org/ stable/ 3257752). The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, New
Series 15 (9): 200–204. doi:10.2307/3257752. .
[75] Taillandier, 23.
[76] Lampert, Catherine. "Rodin, (François-)Auguste(-René)" (http:/ / www. groveart. com/ shared/ views/ article. html?section=art. 072591).
Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press. . Retrieved 19 December 2006.
References
•
•
•
•
Elsen, Albert E. (1963). Rodin. New York: The Museum of Modern Art. LCCN 63-014847
Jianou, Ionel & Goldscheider, C. (1967). Rodin. Paris: Arted, Editions d'Art. LCCN 68-084071
Butler, Ruth (1996). Rodin: The Shape of Genius. New Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300064985.
Butler, Ruth (2008). Hidden in the Shadow of the Master: The Model-Wives of Cézanne, Monet, and Rodin. New
Haven: Yale University Press. ISBN 0300126247.
• Getsy, David (2010). Rodin: Sex and the Making of Modern Sculpture. New Haven and London: Yale University
Press. ISBN 9780300167252.
• Lampert, Catherine (1987). Rodin: Sculpture and Drawings. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
ISBN 9780300038323.
• Lampert, Catherine (2006). Rodin: His Life and Inspiration. London: Royal Academy of Arts.
ISBN 9190397366X.
• Le Normand-Romain, Antoinette (2007). The Bronzes of Rodin. Aldershot: Ashgate. ISBN 2711849392.
External links
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Musée Rodin, Paris (http://www.musee-rodin.fr/)
Rodin Museum, Philadelphia (http://www.rodinmuseum.org/)
Rodin Collection, Stanford University (http://museum.stanford.edu/view/rodin.html)
A 26min film about Auguste Rodin and the Gates of Hell (http://canal-educatif.fr/Video/Arts/
014-Porte-Enfer-Rodin/Anglais/Gates-Hell-Rodin.htm)
Views of the Musée Rodin (http://www.insecula.com/salle/theme_40001_M0123.html/)
Rodin-Web.org: Academic site on Rodin (http://www.rodin-web.org/)
Rodin: Academic View Points (http://www.rodinart.org/)
Auguste Rodin: The Burghers of Calais (http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/publications/burghers.htm)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000
Rodin (http://www.vam.ac.uk/collections/sculpture/sculpture_features/rodin/index.html) at the Victoria
and Albert Museum
Gilles Perrault (http://www.gillesperrault.com) Website of the Art Expert at the Supreme Court of France in
charge of the Guy Hain case, who analysed more than 580 works of Auguste Rodin - Art Analysis Laboratory
2009 Exhibition of Rodin as a Portraitist. HD images on this blog: ZoomArt.fr (http://zoomart.typepad.com/
zoomart/2009/04/rodin.html)
Museo Soumaya (http://www.soumaya.com.mx/menu/loreto/loreto.html) Located in Mexico City, this
museum holds a large collection of Rodin's artwork
Correspondence with Walter Butterworth (http://www.ils.salford.ac.uk/library/resources/special/
butterworth.xml#Butterworth Family Papers) held at the University of Salford
14
Article Sources and Contributors
Article Sources and Contributors
Auguste Rodin Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=428569145 Contributors: 3dnatureguy, 9jules9, AJD, Addshore, Adrignola, Alansohn, AlexGWU, Anaxial, AndrewHorne,
Antandrus, Antoine, Arakunem, Arpingstone, ArtnHistory, Atlantacitizen, Attilios, Awadewit, Barbara Shack, Bemoeial, BenFrantzDale, Bento00, BesselDekker, Beyond My Ken, BigrTex,
Birchcliff, Biruitorul, Bobo192, Bomac, BorgQueen, Born2cycle, Brandon97, Brokenvcrsgalore, Brooklynmuseum, Burgundu, Caiaffa, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Capricorn42, Carl Logan,
Cazo3788, Cbustapeck, Ceoil, Chinasaur, Chun-hian, Clasqm, CliffC, CommonsDelinker, Conversion script, Cool3, Courcelles, Crazilla, Cttomasso, D6, DCLawyer, DVD R W, DW, Da Joe,
Dalillama, Danny, Dante Alighieri, Date delinker, DeadEyeArrow, Deb, Dedale75, Den fjättrade ankan, Der Golem, DerHexer, Design, Diogo95, Discospinster, DocWatson42, Dogriggr,
Donikanuhiu, Dopefish, Douggers, Drc79, Drumguy8800, Dschwen, Dwiakigle, Edton, EllenHodges, Emerson7, Epbr123, Erud, Estudiarme, Etacar11, Everyking, Ewulp, FF2010, Ferkelparade,
Firsfron, Florentino floro, Focus mankind, Formulax, Fusionmix, Fyyer, G.-M. Cupertino, Gabbe, Garrondo, Ghaly, Gioto, Giovanni33, Glane23, Gringo96, Grisunge, Hadal, Hagerman, Hairy
Dude, Hajor, Hektor, HenryLi, Hiberniantears, Hmains, Homonihilis, Husond, J.delanoy, J90909490, JJay, JMD, JNW, JaGa, Jackfork, JackofOz, Jamesday, Janedeer, Janus Shadowsong,
Jemusser, Jengod, Jim, Jittat, Jmabel, John of Reading, Johnbod, Johnuniq, Johnvedderedwards, Jojit fb, Jonathunder, Joncaves, Joseph Solis in Australia, Joy, Jrockley, Juanpdp,
JuniperisCommunis, Jwestbrook, Khatru2, Koavf, Kokiri, Komusou, Kozuch, Kresspahl, Kurmis, Kwamikagami, Ladril, Leafyplant, LeaveSleaves, Life, Liberty, Property, Lightmouse,
Ling.Nut, Lithoderm, Lord Pistachio, Lovedbythepotato, LowellMcF, Lradrama, M-le-mot-dit, M23, MBK004, Magioladitis, Mandarax, Mangoe, Manuel Trujillo Berges, Markhurd, Martarius,
Matilda, Meisam, Melindavaughn, MichaelTinkler, Mike Dillon, Mocko13, Modernist, Mona, Monegasque, Mountshang, Mr Mulliner, Mrscookiejar, Mu, Naddy, Neddyseagoon, Nehrams2020,
Nick2588, Nubiatech, Od Mishehu, Ohms law, Ojigiri, Olivier, OrangeFingers, Orioane, Outrigger, Outriggr, Palica, Pethan, Pewwer42, Phantomsteve, PhilKnight, Plasticup, PoccilScript,
Polluxian, Promking, Proxima Centauri, Pufacz, Qatter, Qwerty Binary, Ra10101, Radagast3, Rausch, Ravens 31, Recognizance, Redredrobin, Renchick, Reywas92, Rglovejoy, Rich
Farmbrough, Riggr Mortis, Rizalninoynapoleon, Rjwilmsi, RobertG, Robin klein, Rodin-Web, Rodinmuseum, Rossp, Ryan Roos, SailorAlphaCentauri, Scientz, Seb az86556, Shanel,
Shoeofdeath, Silly Dan, Simkid7, Sina Tootoonian, Siroxo, Sluzzelin, Smallweed, SmilesALot, Solipsist, Sparkit, SpeedyGonsales, Spiritia, Stephenb, Stevietheman, Studerby, SusanLesch,
Tarquin, Teddks, The Man in Question, The Rambling Man, The Thing That Should Not Be, The Wordsmith, Theblackstatue, Tide rolls, Tirthajyoti, Tkgd2007, TomCat4680, Tommy2010,
Tony1, Tothebarricades.tk, Tpbradbury, TrollVandal, TutterMouse, Tuxedo junction, Twas Now, Tyrenius, Unschool, Utcursch, VAwebteam, Vanished user 03, Vicki Rosenzweig, Virtual
Particle, Wetman, When fishes flew, Whiskeydog, Wikid77, Will8em, Wizardman, X201, YUL89YYZ, Yomangan, Yomangani, Yuckfoo, Zhernovoi, Юкатан, ‫אגרש‬17, 420 anonymous edits
Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors
File:Rodin-cropped.png Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Rodin-cropped.png License: Public Domain Contributors: Diwas, Docu, Edelseider, Frank C. Müller,
Xenophon, Yomangani, 2 anonymous edits
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Contributors: Daniel Schwen (photo/foto)
File:Auguste Rodin 1893 Nadar.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Auguste_Rodin_1893_Nadar.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: AlMare, Albertomos,
Infrogmation, Wst, Xenophon
File:Camille Claudel.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Camille_Claudel.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: Kjetil r, Olivier2, Romary
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Contributors: Daniel Ullrich, Threedots
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uploader was Arpingstone at en.wikipedia
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File:The Thinker, Rodin.jpg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:The_Thinker,_Rodin.jpg License: Public Domain Contributors: AndrewHorne (talk)
License
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15