Meet

Auguste RODIN

Paris – London – 2018

French sculptor Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is one of the most famous artists of the Belle Époque. Redefining the role of the artist for the modern age, Rodin’s radical work didn’t ‘idealise’ his subjects. Instead he focused on the raw intensity and natural expression of the individual’s emotions and desires.

At Sculpture Garden of Musée Rodin in Paris

This year I met Rodin two times in a month. At the beginning of June I was in Paris at Musée Rodin. At the beginning of July I was looking at the exhibition Rodin and the art of ancient Greece at the British Museum in London. Come with me to meet Rodin to Paris and London. Enjoy 🙂

At British Museum in London

Musée Rodin, Paris

Come with me first to the Musée Rodin, Paris.

The Musée Rodin in Paris, France, is a museum that was opened in 1919, dedicated to the works of the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. The collection includes 6,600 sculptures, 8,000 drawings, 8,000 old photographs, and 7,000 objets d’art. First opened to the public on 4 August 1919, the Musée Rodin was housed in a mansion, formerly called the Hôtel Peyrenc de Moras. Now known as the Hôtel Biron, it was built in the Rue de Varenne, Paris, between 1727 and 1732. Nearly 300 works from Rodin’s collection are on view in this mansion designed along the lines of classical architecture and adorned with rocaille decoration.  The museum receives 700,000 visitors annually. [See more here.]

Building of Musée Rodin in Hôtel Biron, Paris

With  The Thinker in front garden of Museum

Resting in front garden

Detail of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840-1917) | Les Bénédictions 1896 (?) – 1911
Marble 80 x 75,5 cm x 66,5 cm

Detail of exhibition in mirror

Detail of exhibition

With The Kiss

Detail of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

Head of Pierre de Wissant, a Burghers of Calais

On the main staircase

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Stretching over three hectares, the grounds were then divided into a rose garden, north of the Hôtel Biron, and a large ornamental garden, to the south, while a terrace and hornbeam hedge backing onto a trellis concealed a relaxation area, at the bottom of the garden.

Pierced by three openings, this trellis reflects the design and proportions of the three bay windows on the mansion’s garden façade.

Two thematic walks were also laid out: in the east, plants thrive amidst the rockery in the “Garden of Orpheus”, and, in the west, water is omnipresent in the “Garden of Springs”. [See more here.]

Rodin started to place selected works in the overgrown garden that he liked so much in 1908, together with some of the antiques from his personal collection. Male and female torsos, copies made in the Roman or modern period, after Greek works, were presented in these natural surroundings, their contours dappled by the sunlight: “Nature and Antiquity are the two great sources of life for an artist. In any event, Antiquity implies nature. It is its truth and its smile.” (Rodin)

The marble gallery was created in 1971 as a storeroom and exhibition space, allowingmore works to be displayed in the museum.

Detail of the marble gallery

With The Burghers of Calais

 

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Rodin Exhibition at British Museum, London

The exhibition Rodin and the art of ancient Greece from April 26 to July 29, 2018 in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery at the British Museum

Auguste Rodin was a radical and innovative artist who challenged the rules of contemporary sculpture. Perhaps his most important legacy was the idea that a fragment – an incomplete figure or even an isolated hand – could be a work of art in its own right.

Detail of exhibition

In 1881 the French sculptor Auguste Rodin visited London for the first time. On a trip to the British Museum, he saw the Parthenon sculptures and was instantly captivated and inspired by the beauty of these ancient Greek masterpieces.

For the first time at Rodin Exhibition of British Museum bring together the artist’s works with the Parthenon sculptures that influenced his radical approach to sculpture. The exhibition included Rodin’s iconic works ‘The Kiss’ and ‘The Thinker’, and many other sculptures on loan from Musée Rodin.

One of Rodin’s best-known works, The Thinker, on loan from the Burrell Collection in Glasgow,was conceived to sit high up on Rodin’s The Gates of Hell. His inspiration for the sculpture included one of the most celebrated sculpture fragments to survive from antiquity, the Belvedere Torso.

Displayed alongside The Thinker are three objects from the British Museum, a classical torso from a marble statuette of Venus (about 1st century AD); a Royal Academy medal (about 1901), showing the Athenian Acropolis alongside the Belvedere Torso; and Eugène Carrière’s portrait of Auguste Rodin, Rodin sculpting (1900).

Detail of exhibition

Head and torso, metope from south side of the Parthenon ca. 447-438 BC marble (left) Auguste Rodin | Funerary spirit, also known as Spirit of Eternal Repose 1898 plaster (right)

View of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

Horse of Selen, figure O from the east pediment of the Parthenon ca. 438-432 BC marble (front left)

Iris, messenger of the gods, figure N from the west pediment of the Parthenon ca. 438-432 BC marble (left)

Auguste Rodin | Iris, Messenger of the Gods 1895 bronze (right)

View of exhibition

Detail of exhibition

View of exhibition

Auguste Rodin | The Walking Man on a Column 1900 bronze

 

 

Auguste Rodin | The Walking Man on a Column 1900 bronze