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. 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
The Prodigal Son
1889 Musee Rodin, Paris
Adam
The Shade
1880
The Rodin Museum, Philadelphia
Saint John the
Baptist Preaching
1878
The Crouching Woman
1880-82
The Kneeling Female Faun
1884-86
She Who Was the
Helmet-Maker's Beautiful Wife
1880-85
Sinner
1885
Hermitage, St Petersburg
Heroic Bust of
Victor Hugo
1890-97
Invocation
1900
The Age of Bronze
1903-1904 Gift of Mrs. John W. Simpson
Ugolino
1882 Musee
Rodin, Paris
Monument
to Balza
1898
Head of Balzac
Nude Study of Balzac
1892
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