Auguste Rodin, 1891
As the founder of modern sculpture, Rodin is known for his works that subvert traditional themes and his natural and realistic figures. However, his artistic path was not smooth, and he did not become famous until middle age, accompanied by controversies large and small. Today, Harper's Bazaar Takes You To Know 20 Things Rodin Didn't Know.
The "college entrance examination" fell on the list three times
Born into a family of ordinary workers, Rodin taught himself painting at the age of 10 before entering Petite École to study art and mathematics. At the age of 17, he submitted a plaster work to the Écoledes Beaux-Arts in France, applied for admission but was rejected, and he tried twice without success. Since the entry threshold was not high at that time, this made Rodin feel bad. Eventually, he gave up his education and chose to work directly as a craftsman, and then made a living making various decorations for nearly 20 years, until he became famous at the age of nearly 40.
August Rodin, Jean-Baptiste Rodin, the Artist's Father, bronze, 41.5×28×24 cm, circa 1864
Rodin had introduced an unreliable object to his sister, Maria, who was two years older than him, and Maria died of illness around the age of 24. Although the two were not directly related, Rodin was so guilty of his sister's death that he once gave up art and devoted himself to religion.
August Rodin, "Young Woman", plaster, height 10.2 cm, circa 1889
In 1870, the Franco-Prussian War broke out and Rodin enlisted in the army; but because of his high myopia, he soon left the army. At the same time, he also has some dyslexia.
August Rodin, The Tempest, Marble, 34.6×37.8 × 19.7 cm, circa 1910
Rodin's first sculpture, The Man with the Broken Nose, was rather bumpy. At that time, the temperature in the studio was too low, and the work was directly cracked into pieces, especially the entire back of the head was missing, and the nose of the character was crooked and collapsed, shaped like a mask. So the artist made a mistake and submitted the work to the official salon exhibition. Unsurprisingly, the work was rejected. However, this "unfinishedness" became a major feature of Rodin's sculptures.
August Rodin, The Man with the Broken Nose, bronze, 26×18×23 cm, 1864
At the age of 35, Rodin spent two months in Italy, heavily influenced by Renaissance sculptors Michelangelo and Donatello. He said: "It was Michelangelo that liberated me from academic sculpture. ”
Michelangelo, David (partial), marble, height 517 cm, 1501-1504
Rodin's first "complete" sculpture, The Age of Bronze, draws inspiration from Michelangelo's Dying Slave. At the same time, he carefully studied the model's dynamic and static shapes, and created a sculpture that was large, perfect proportions, and subversive of the traditional movements. However, due to the lack of mythological and historical event themes, the work was not popular at salon exhibitions.
August Rodin, The Age of Bronze, Bronze, 180×80×60 cm, 1877
Michelangelo, Dying Slave (partial), marble, 228 cm high, 1513-1515
To make matters worse, because the sculptural form, light and shadow are too natural, it is also accused of being made of molds cast by live models. Rodin objected fiercely to this and won the complaint. Later, the work was bought by a government official. A year later, Rodin learned his lesson and created St. John the Baptist Preaching, a larger-than-real, religiously themed book. Despite the controversy, these two works won Rodin applause and recognition, making him a prominent figure in the art world.
August Rodin, St. John the Baptist Preaching (partial), bronze, 1880
Presumably, all creators are most afraid of encountering a bottomless pit that takes too long when taking on the project, and Rodin "unfortunately entered the pit" throughout his artistic career, "The Gates of Hell". In 1880, the Paris government planned to build a museum of decorative arts and commissioned Rodin to design the gate, which was never built.
August Rodin, The Gates of Hell, Bronze, 635×400×85cm, 1880-1917
At that time, Rodin did not know that he was being pitted. Inspired by the "hell" scene in Dante's Divine Comedy, he designed 186 relief figures for the door depicting the physical and mental torment of man in hell. It is in this group of sculptures that a series of his most widely known works, including "The Thinker", "Kiss" and "The Three Shades", are also considered "blessings of misfortune".
August Rodin's Gates of Hell (part of the "Thinker"), bronze, 635×400×85 cm, 1880-1917, the thinker is based on the Italian Renaissance poet Dante.
August Rodin, The Three Ghosts, Bronze, 1881
Among the many scenes in "Hell's Gate", the famous "Kiss" seems "romantic and out of place". In fact, the sculpture is based on the second layer of "Lustful" in the first volume of the Divine Comedy, "Hell", and tells the story of the aristocratic woman Francesca who committed adultery with her husband's brother, Paolo, and was both killed.
August Rodin, The Kiss, Marble, 181.5×112.3×117cm, 1888-1889
Rodin was very good at seizing opportunities and marketing himself. At that time, the Expo was undoubtedly the most traffic-attracting event. The artist spent a lot of money to build a pavilion at his own expense at the 1900 Paris World Expo to exhibit his works. This bold move not only made his reputation international, but also brought him a large number of orders, and the portrait income alone reached a staggering 200,000 francs.
August Rodin, The Crouching Woman, Plaster, 53×93.5×45cm, 1881-1882
Despite the constant orders, his public sculptures have been repeatedly rejected and controversial, such as his successive "Victor Hugo Monument", "Balzac Statue" and "The Righteous People of Calais". The reason is simple, Rodin always subverts the tradition and ignores the requirements of Party A.
August Rodin, Monument to Victor Hugo, bronze, 1897
August Rodin, "Final Study for the Monument to Balzac", bronze, 106×44.5 × 41.9 cm, 1897
For example, "The Righteous People of Calais" is based on the story of the "righteous people going to trouble" in the Hundred Years' War between England and France in the 14th century, which should have shown the fearless spirit of the righteous soldiers who sacrificed themselves. However, Rodin portrayed the complex expression of the characters' pain and hesitation, which caused strong dissatisfaction from the authorities. However, at his insistence, the sculpture was eventually "settled" in a park.
August Rodin, The Burghers of Calais, bronze, 209.6×238.8×241.3cm, 1884–1895
Although Rodin had many marble and bronze works, he almost never got started himself. He usually used plaster to create, which was then remade or enlarged by his assistants with both materials.
Rodin in the studio
In his later years, the artist painted a large number of sketches and watercolors, mostly female dancers, such as Isadora Duncan, the "mother of modern dance" in the United States, who worked as a model for him. His creative process is about speed and freedom - he lets the model dance around it, quickly drop the pen and do not look at the drawing, and after painting one, he immediately throws it on the ground to continue to the next one.
Rodin's dancers
The simple lines of these works reflect his superb painting skills. However, some of the works have attracted criticism for their blunt erotic elements. In 1906, after the paintings were exhibited in a museum in Cologne, Germany, they quickly caused public outrage and the curator was forced to resign.
The Musée Rodin, officially opened in 1919.
In 1908, Rodin rented the main building of the Hôtel Biron in Paris as a studio and stored his works. Originally a school, it was rented out by the government at a low price due to its disrepair. In addition to Rodin, the French writer Jean Cocteau, the founder of Fauvism, Henri Matisse, and the dancer Isadora Duncan all lived here. Shortly after Rodin's death, it became the Art Gallery of Rodin and opened to the public.
Rodin was very fond of the British Museum and visited many times, among which his favorite was the ancient Greek Parthenon sculptures that had no head or "missing arms and legs".
August Rodin, Pallas with Parthenon, bronze, 47×38.7×31 cm, 1896
The artist had close ties with the literary world, having illustrated Charles Baudelaire's masterpiece, The Flower of Evil, a pioneer of French Symbolist poetry; another poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, had been his assistant for a year.
Rodin's illustration for The Flower of Evil
In their private lives, Rodin and Picasso can be described as the "absolute scum" in the history of modern art. The story of the former and her student, assistant and model Camille Claudel, whose brother angrily denounced Rodin as a "lecher" and who ended up spending the rest of her life tragically in an insane asylum.
August Rodin Thought (Portrait of Camille Claudel), marble, height 74 cm, 1886-1889
Rodin's "lustfulness" doesn't stop there. According to the French writer Edmond de Goncourt, Rodin dined with Monet and his four daughters. In the process, Rodin stared at them with blunt and offensive eyes, so that the dinner broke up.
August Rodin, Fallen Caryatid, Marble, 50×30.5×26.7cm, 1883
When Rodin "strengthens his relationship" with a model in the studio, he posts a notice at the door:
"Mr. Rodin has gone to church."
（Monsieur Rodin is away visiting cathedrals.）
August Rodin, Danaid, Marble, 1890
Many of the later famous sculptors studied in Rodin's studio, including Constantin Brâncuși, but he stayed for a month and left. Because he realized that it was not easy to cool under the big tree, and everything under the big tree might be difficult to grow.
“Nothing can grow under big trees.”
— Konstantin Brancusi
Konstantin Brancusi, Plaster, 27.9×26×21.6cm, 1907-1908
As one of the top ten artists whose works have been copied the most, Rodin devoted himself to cracking down on counterfeiting during his lifetime; after his death, his works were forged continuously. In 1956, the French government also deliberately legislated to limit the number of copies of its 12 works.
August Rodin, The Thinker, bronze, circa 1906, now in the Rodin Museum.
Rodin and Rose Burrley
Rodin had a life of affection and lovers, and was never separated from his "wife" Rose Beuret. The reason why the word "wife" is in quotation marks is because the two met in their 20s, and did not really marry until half a century later in 1917, and died one after another in the same year. And on his grave stands Rodin's masterpiece, The Thinker.
It is on display
展览：THE MAKING OF RODIN
When: May 18-21, 2021
Address: Tate Modern, London
Editor, Wen Zhang Jianlei
This article is original by Harper's Bazaar Art Department and may not be reproduced without permission