Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin (November 12, 1840 - November 17, 1917) was a French sculptor.
Born François-Auguste-René Rodin, in Paris, France, he stands at the culmination of the figurative tradition in sculpture, and after him sculptors increasingly turned towards abstraction. However, some of his works, including The Thinker (Le Penseur in French) and The Kiss (Le Baiser), remain among the most immediately recognisable sculptures in the Western artistic tradition. Ironically, neither was ever intended to be a major work - both were expanded details of Rodin's great unfinished work The Gates of Hell, a great set of doors for the Museum of Decorative Arts commissioned in 1880 and unfinished at his death in 1917 depicting scenes from Dante's Inferno in high relief. Indeed, The Thinker, originally titled The Poet was to represent the poet Dante.
Rodin worked in both marble and bronze. Other notable sculptures by Rodin include The Burghers of Calais (Les Bourgeois de Calais), Caryatid Fallen Under Her Stone, She Who Once Was the Beautiful Heaulmiere and his funerary monuments for Victor Hugo and Honoré de Balzac.
Rodin had an affair with one of his (female) students, the sculptor and graphic artist Camille Claudel.
Auguste Rodin died in Meudon, Île-de-France, France on November 17, 1917.
The French government owns the rights to Rodin's work - acquired in exchange for a lifetime lease on a home and studio - and limits the number of reproductions that can be made. The Musée Rodin, in Paris, has an excellent collection of his work, much of it displayed in an outdoor garden.
Where to find Rodin's sculptures
- Musée Rodin, Paris, France
- Rodin Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- A bust of Joseph Pulitzer by the artist is in the World Room of Journalism Hall at Columbia University
- Sculpture Garden, Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA
- California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, California, USA
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California
- Public displays:
- Statue of Honoré de Balzac, Boulevard Raspail, near Boulevard Montparnasse, in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France.
- Statue of The Burghers of Calais on Calais' main square by the town hall.
External links
- Auguste Rodin
- Musée Rodin - Rodin Museum, Paris, France
- Musee Rodin, Paris: http://www.musee-rodin.fr/
- Rodin Museum, Philadelphia: http://www.rodinmuseum.org/
Rodin the artist should not be confused with Rodan the monster.