If There Is Much In The Window There Should Be More In The Room

Saturday, February 21, 2015

The Rodin Mythology



 


Three views of a mask by Auguste Rodin adorning the retaining wall of the Greenhouses Garden of Auteuil terrace built by Jean Camille Formigé between 1895 and 1898 in Paris. Galvanized cast iron.
 

The Rodin Mythology

 


"All that I have lived
and loved I have made in my art"



He belongs to the race of those men who march alone - Paul Laurens, the painter, said of Auguste Rodin.


 



1900 un triomphe pour Rodin  Avenue MontaigneAvenue Montaigne


In full Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin, French sculptor of sumptuous bronze and marble figures, is considerably regarded by some critics to be the greatest portraitist in the history of sculpture. French sculptor and draughtsman, he is the only sculptor of the modern age regarded in his lifetime and afterwards to be on a par with Michelangelo. Both made images with widespread popular appeal, and both stressed the materiality of sculpture.




 


 


Rodin’s most famous works—the Age of Bronze, The Thinker, The Kiss, the Burghers of Calais and Honoré de Balzac—are frequently reproduced outside a fine-art context to represent modern attitudes that require poses and encounters freed from allegory, idealization and propriety.





 


The Rodin mythology embraces the artist’s faith in the spiritual dignity of individuals that direct scrutiny can reveal; this is at its most blatant in Rodin’s portraits of French heroes such as Balzac and Victor Hugo, presented naked and vulnerable.



Rose Beuret
 


His numerous biographers dwell on his rise from humble origins and his struggle to be accepted by the juries arbitrating entry to the Salon and to be awarded government commissions.



Also part of the myth are the fidelity of Rose Beuret, his companion of 50 years; his brazen sexuality; and the unprecedented international fame Rodin acquired after 1900. 




And for most of the 77 years of his life the great sculptor marched alone, first battling his way against the adversities of relentless poverty and hostile criticism and, in the latter years of his life, alone at the head of an international army of enthusiastic admirers. When Rodin presented one of his early pieces to the Academy of Fine Arts, he was told that his work did not “exhibit any evidence of talent,” and some 50 years or so later critics of many places were hailing him as the greatest sculptor of the world — save Michael Angelo — since Pheidias and Praxiteles.


 


Rodin did not idealize his subjects, but aimed for realism, going to nature for his inspiration. To him, all nature was life and life was art.


Auguste_Rodin_-_Monument_to_Victor_Hugo
Affiche de l'exposition “ Rodin ” au pavillon de l'Alma, 1900




 



 


 


BY the turn of the century, Auguste Rodin, a shy man of humble origins who did not come into his own as a sculptor until his mid-30's, dominated the international art world, his influence reaching as far as Japan.


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 


 

The 165 sculptures that he showed in his specially constructed pavilion at Paris's vast Universal Exhibition in 1900 were a sensational draw. 


expo_universelle1900

M.R. Binet Port d'Entree 1900. Art Nouveau France - Paris - Exposition Universelle Paris
Rodin in front of the showcases of the Pavillon de l’Alma, Meudon, circa 1902



Rodin in the Pavillon de l'Alma

RODIN-EXPO-LABORATOIRE-CREATION

 

 

 

 

 

Thereafter, the master whose celebration of sexuality had once shocked the rich and powerful on both sides of the Atlantic was flooded with commissions.



Studio of the Master, Meudon
Le_Chateau_d'eau_and_plaza,_Exposition_Universal,_1900,_Paris,_France
The most influential figures of the day, from Georges Clemenceau to George Bernard Shaw, were proud to sit for him. And King Edward VII even made a special trip to visit the sculptor at his home in Meudon.   

In Rodin’s Studio

 

 

 

 

 

At the beginning of the 20th century Rodin was famous throughout the world and long had been revered as a modern-day Michelangelo, a titan of sculpture, an incarnation of the power of inspired genius. 

 

 

 

 

Even his prodigious sensuality was excused as a symbol of his Olympian stature.

Le_Musee_RODIN


In the end it seems there was scarcely an honor that had not been bestowed on this hard-eyed, gruff-looking artist. Even in death his fame was secure. 
His works were housed in the Hotel Biron, now the Rodin Museum, which is still thronged daily by admirers from all over the world.

augusterodin1919


Most major museums own copies of his works, and museums in Paris, Philadelphia, and Tokyo are dedicated to him. Rodin's prime contribution was in bringing Western sculpture back to what always had been its essential strength, a knowledge and sumptuous rendering of the human body. 


Why Is Rodin Important? In the 1860s, when Rodin began making sculpture, art was deeply rooted in the past — it told stories from religion, history, myth, and literature, and it told them as if the artist had been a witness to the events. Just thirty years later, by the peak of his career — the 1890s — Auguste Rodin had transformed sculpture into something that today we call modern, that spoke to the artist’s and viewer’s emotions and imaginations.  

François-Auguste-René Rodin




The stories that were told were often internal and conceptual, and there was no right or wrong way to interpret them.  And by the time Rodin died in 1917 he had — through prodigious talent and a remarkable volume of work — challenged the established styles of his youth and revolutionized sculpture.  Today his pioneering work is a crucial link between traditional and modern art.





Is Rodin's monumental masterpiece a failure? This video explains why there are two different versions of the same artwork, and why Rodin remained obsessed by the Gates until his death. It shows how the artist managed to solve major aesthetic issues that faced modern artists at that time.



La Porte de l'Enfer (The Gates of Hell) by Auguste Rodin depicts a scene from The Inferno, the first section of The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. The monumental sculptural ensemble, standing at 6m high by 4m wide and 1m deep (19.69'x13.12'x3.29'), contains over 180 figures, ranging from 15cm high to more than one metre--many of which were later cast independently. 


La Porte de l'Enfer was commissioned in 1880 by the Directorate of Fine Arts for an entrance to their planned Decorative Arts Museum. Although intended for an 1885 delivery, the museum was never built and Rodin would continue to work on the project on and off for 37 years, until his death in 1917. Its first public viewing came at a self-organized one-man exhibition at the Place de l'Alma in 1900. 


Right before the opening, Rodin stripped the Gates of its figures, leaving an unreal space, modulated by light and shadow. Towards the end of his life, Rodin restored the figures, but never saw it cast in bronze. In 1917, the original plaster was restored and is currently on display at the Musée d'Orsay. That model was used to make the original three bronze casts, including this one at the Musée Rodin. The other two are in the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia and the National Museum of Western Art in Ueno Park, Tokyo. Subsequent copies were made and distributed to a number of locations, including The Kunsthaus Zürich, the B. Gerald Cantor Rodin Sculpture Garden at Stanford University and the Rodin Gallery in Seoul.




RELATED VIDEOS
Part 4/7 Rodin (2003)
Francois-Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)

Auguste Rodin is widely considered to be the greatest and most influential sculptor of the late nineteenth century. A passionate observer of the human body, he challenged certain conventions of the time and paved the way for modern sculpture. This film is a unique insight into the sculptor's personality and working methods, told through the artist's notebooks and letters as well as archive footage of him in his studio and at Meudon.

 

   




 







“The Old Courtesan”
2607492376_8956899bd2_b  Eternal Idol
3871516973_c0637b5e0f_o.
Adam 1880-1881 Bronze
Adam




adam-
adam_[detail _1]
adam_and_eve_expelled_from_paradise
Adonis Death
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/wcm/connect/817c986e-7ceb-4eb7-bd48-038ccfabe438/WOA_IMAGE_1.jpg?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=d46b8ef0-317b-474a-97ed-383f0c2b4072
The Age of Bronze (2)
At The Gates of Hell
Auguste Rodin The Burghers of Calais First Maquette
Signature of Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) on The Thinker
Auguste Rodin_The Thinker_ originally part of The Gate of Hell
Auguste_Rodin,_1881-ca.1899,_Éve,_bronze,_Jardin_des_Tuilleries,_Paris._DSC09221
Auguste_rodin,_balzac,_modellato_nel_1897,_fusione_del_1961
Auguste_Rodin,_Jules_Bastien-Lepage_(1889)_-_01
Auguste_Rodin_-_Grubleren_2005-02
Auguste_Rodin-Adam-Musée_Rodin
AUGUSTE_RODIN_A_mão_de_Deus_ou_A_Criação
Auguste_Rodin-Eternal-Spring-Hermitage
Auguste_Rodin-Madame_Vicuna-Orsay_Museum
Auguste_Rodin-Orpheus_and_Eurydice-Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art
Auguste_Rodin-The_Age_of_Bronze-Victoria_and_Albert_Museum-2
Auguste_Rodin-The_Hand_of_God-Metropolitan_Museum_of_Art
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Auguste_Rodin-The_Kiss-Rodin_Museum%2C_Paris.jpg
Auguste_Rodin-The_Kiss-Rodin_Museum,_Paris
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Auguste_Rodin-The_three_shades-Mus%C3%A9e_Rodin.jpg
Auguste_Rodin-The_three_shades-Musée_Rodin
auguste-rodin-orphecc81e-et-eurydice-1893
Auguste-Rodin-Romeo-and-Juliet-1905
Bronze_bust_of_Gustav_Mahler_by_Auguste_Rodin,_Avery_Fisher_Hall_in_Lincoln_Center
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/28/Burghers_of_Calais_Hirshhorn.jpg
Burghers_of_Calais_Hirshhorn
bust_of_a_smiling_woman-
camille_claudel 1
http://uploads8.wikiart.org/images/auguste-rodin/camille-claudel.jpg
camille-claudel
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cf/Auguste_Rodin_001.jpg
Crouching Woman 1880-1882 ENLARGED 1907-11 CAST 1962 Bronze Gift of Joseph H. Hirshhorn1966
cupid_and_psyche-
danaid
danaid_
danaid_[detail _1]
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1176/1387040000_c69313da24_b.jpg
Daphnie and Lycenion
Detail from the Gates of Hell 1
Detail from the Gates of Hell 2
Detail from the Gates of Hell.
eternal idol
eternal-idol-1889
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Eustache_de_Saint_Pierre-Rodin-Caixaforum.jpg
Eustache_de_Saint_Pierre-one of The Burghers of Calais-Rodin-Caixaforum
Eve 1881 Bronze
Eve eating the apples 1
eve_Fairfax-
Femmes damnées Avant 1890 Bronze
http://www.wga.hu/art/r/rodin/1gates/5relate2.jpg
Fugit Amor (2)
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uSpBvHhsrecv_wDetPOfLhhCGo2c0oxsEEgsuv9Ke2prx0FIMBPhhce76s0Ogmag1lH5FMLjIix-vZrN7hZr4s_QS7eiXgxaf7cuSt2rkMPzJvyoIFUeDA2qX3pZiKYBOHTW3g8HTuCE/s1600/6.jpg
Fugit Amor - Rodin
fugit-amor
gard2
gard3
gard4
gard 1 Balzac
gard5
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gard7
gard8
gard9
gard10
gard11
gard12
gates of hell
Gerald Cantor Rodin sculpture garden
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Rodin_p1070087.jpg
Head portrait of Camille Claudel with a bonnet
Hoellentor
http://www.philamuseum.org/images/cad/rodin/F1929-7-6v1-pma.jpg
I am Beautiful 

Signed on rock between man's legs, toward the left: A.Rodin Inscribed front of base: Je suis belle, ô Mortels, Comme un rêve de pierre Et mon sein, où Chacun s'est meurtri tour à tour Est fait pour inspirer au poète un Amour Etant alors muet ainsi que la matière Translation: I am beautiful as a dream of stone, but not maternal; And my breast, where men are slain, none for his learning, Is made to inspire in the Poet passions that, burning, Are mute and carnal as matter and as eternal. Foundry mark center rear of base: ALEXIS RUDIER/Fondeur. PARIS. Made in France, Europe. Modeled 1885; cast 1925-1926. Auguste Rodin, French, 1840 - 1917. Cast by the founder Alexis Rudier, Paris, 1874 - 1952.
IMG_3179
http://www.musee-rodin.fr/sites/musee/files/styles/zoom/public/resourceSpace/870_35299cfc207f7bb.jpg?itok=WThOavNR
Iris, Messenger of the Gods
Jules_Bastien-lepage-
https://surlespavesdeparis.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/dsc_0034.jpg
La Défense by Rodin.
La Défense. © Musée Rodin
La Main de Dieu
La Porte de l'Enfer - Fugit Amor
La Porte de l'Enfer - Le Penseur
La Porte de l'Enfer - Les trois Ombres
La Porte de l'Enfer - Ugolino et ses enfant
La Porte de l'Enfer du Musée Rodin à Paris, détail d'Ugolin et ses enfants
La Porte de l'Enfer1
L'Age d'airain
La_toilette_de_Vénus_A_Rodin_Lille_2918
Le Baiser du fantôme à la jeune fille, 1885
La Porte de l'Enfer2
Le Baiser 1
Le Baiser
Le Monument à Balzac
http://parissculptures.p.a.pic.centerblog.net/i929f9xy.jpg
Le sommeil Musée Rodin
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Le_penseur_de_la_Porte_de_lEnfer_%28mus%C3%A9e_Rodin%29_%284528252054%29.jpg
Le_penseur_de_la_Porte_de_lEnfer_(musée_Rodin)_(4528252054)
Les Bourgeois de Calais
Les trois Ombres
L'Eternelle Idole
Main sortant de la tombe
(The Hand from the Tomb)

The Hand from the Tomb
Mains d'amants
man_with_a_broken_nose-
mask_of_Hanako,_the_Japanese_actress
Model for the Monument, seated draped figure
monument_to_victor_hugo_(first_project)
Museo_d'Orsay_auguste_rodin,_conte_ugolino_0
Museo_d'Orsay_auguste_rodin,_conte_ugolino_01
https://surlespavesdeparis.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/dsc_0013.jpg
Naked Balzac C with Folded Arms
NYC - Brooklyn Museum - Auguste Rodin's Burghers of Calais
Paris  Musée Rodin The Thinker
Paris - Musée Rodin Adonis Death
Paris - Musée Rodin La Cathédrale
Paris - Musée Rodin, La Main de Dieu
Paris-Musee Rodin
Pense
Philbrook Museum - Auguste Rodin
Paris Musée Rodin Daphnis et Leycénion
Pierre de Wissant, Draped Figure
Pierre de Wissant, Draped Figure 1
Pierre de Wissant, Naked Figure 1
Pierre de Wissant, Naked Figure
Porte_de_l'enfer_(Chute)Detail upper left-hand door
Porte_de_l'enfer_Musée_d'Orsay_01
portrait-of-a-man-1
portrait_of_the_japanese_dancer_Hanako-
Portrait_of_Varvara_Yeliseyeva-Hermitage
psyche
Reveries Poet and the Muse 1905 Marble The Hermitage The St. Petersburg
Rodin 1
Rodin Museum, Paris Pierre de Wissant9
Rodin Museum, Paris1
Rodin Museum, Paris2
Rodin Museum, Paris3
Rodin Museum, Paris4
Rodin Museum, Paris5
Rodin Museum, Paris6
Rodin Museum, Paris7
Rodin Museum, Paris8
Rodin museum, paris10ThreeShades
Rodin museum, paris11GatesOfHell
Rodin museum, paris12GatesOfHell
Rodin museum, paris13GatesOfHell
Rodin museum, paris14BurghersOfCalais
Rodin museum, paris15BurghersOfCalais
Rodin museum, paris16TheKiss
Rodin museum, paris17
Rodin museum, paris18 ManWithBrokenNose
Rodin museum, paris19
Rodin museum, paris20
Rodin the prodigal son
Rodin
Rodin_-_Marsyas_(Torso_of_The_Falling_Man)_-_LACMA
Rodin_-_The_Shade_-_LACMA
Rodin_crouching_woman
Rodin_Fallen_Caryatid_with_Urn_front_side
Rodin_flying_figure_p1070126

Garden view at the Musée Rodin (Rodin_Garden)
Rodin_invocation
Rodin_jean_d_aire
Rodin_Mme.-Vicuna-or-The-Charmer
Rodin_Monument_to_Hugo_PMA
Rodin_p1070093
Rodin_Pierre_De_Wissant_p1070098
Rodin_douleur
Rodin 1
Rodin-man-broken-nose
Rodin_Rose_Beuret
Rodin_Serres_d'Auteuil_Mascaron_D1`(2)
Rodin_Serres_d'Auteuil_Terrasse_B
Rodin_Suzon_p1070078
Rodin_The Walking Man
Rodin_The_bronze_age
Rodin_urn
Rodin-thinker
She Who Was the Helmet Maker's Once-Beautiful Wife 1887_1
She Who Was the Helmet Maker's Once-Beautiful Wife 1887_2
St-John-the-Baptist-Preaching
Study After Auguste Rodin's La Belle Heaulmiere
http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/wps/wcm/connect/817c986e-7ceb-4eb7-bd48-038ccfabe438/WOA_IMAGE_1.jpg?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=d46b8ef0-317b-474a-97ed-383f0c2b4072
The Age of Bronze (2)
The Age of Bronze_[detail _1]
The Burghers of Calais, First Maquette
The Call to Arms (La Defense), 1878
The Cry, Auguste Rodin
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1023/5180048398_3423764ca2_o.jpg
The Fall of Illusion Sister of Icarus
The falling man
The Gates of Hell
The Prodigal Son
The Secret 1
The Secret
The Storm
The Thinker
the Three Shades by Rodin
the walking man
The Young Mother in the Grotto
The Thinker 1903 Bronze
the-gates-of-hell-1885-1917situated at the Kunsthaus in Zürich Switzerland
The_Burghers_of_Calais_NY
the_hand_of_god-
the_kiss
the_kiss_[detail _1]
the_kiss_[detail]
the_sinner
the_thinker_Auguste_Rodin
torso of falling man
Tuileries_Rodin_Le_Baiser_120409_1
Ugolino and his Children
Ugolino
Victor Hugo and muses
Victor Hugo Monument, first project
young_girl_with_roses_on_her_hat-








*original post date July 1 2010












Sources:
Musee-rodin.fr

gordon.shecket.org (Rodin museum Paris)

cantorfoundation.org

Wikimedia Commons

Wga.hu

philamuseum.org

rodinmuseum.org

Wikimedia.org

Wikiart.org

Hermitagemuseum.org

Rodin-web.org

*artrenewal.org*

*all-art.org*

*Flickr*

*wallyg*

*theNewYorktimes*

*artchive.com*          

avenuemontaigneguide.com









2 comments:

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