Francois - Auguste Rodin:

Supreme artist of the romantic age

by Gwen Herat

Honestly, I am short of words to describe the hands of the genius, Francois-Auguste Rodin, perhaps the miracle sculptor the world ever knew. Michaelangelo and Raphael are great names too but that was in another world full of illusions. They could never invade the domain of Rodin, the spectacular moulder of the nude the world came to know and understand the beauty that lies in nudity though puritans think otherwise.

Rodin

The great creator was possessed with a fiery passion to sculpt Balzac that people were to laugh at later and mock him too but they could not destroy it which was the product of his entire life (I cannot understand either). It was the mainspring of his aesthetic and when his work was over, be became a new man. He pondered ... if the truth was doomed to die, his Balzac would de destroyed by later generations.

He sculptured the monument that was three metre high and delevered in May, 1893 and the monument stands magnificently on the Place du Palais-Royal.

Why was Rodin so passionate about Balzac.

Genius

He had moved into the literary circles of his age and was fascinated by Dante, Balzac, Baudelaire and Hugo. They all recognised his genius and supported him in his endeavours both in his chosen art and writing.

The necessity to make a living put him in different directions. Whereas had he confined himself to sculpture instead of dabbling in bronzes, hewed-marble and stone, he could have produced finer body of work at more remarkable heights.

Creativity

Yet, Rodin's creativity and capacity seemed unlimited because at moments he displayed sensuality, then he exalted it because the gift of expressing the pain of life and the terror of death and of hell, was his forte.

He never added beauty to his monuments. They were horrible one moment, early the next and stone-hard in expression.

He exhibited so much of the elements in turmoil, there was never a smile in a face. I found beauty in their ugliness because my eyes had been trained only to discover beauty in anything, no matter whether it was the living or the dead, because of my majoring in aesthetic studies. When many scholars found Rodin far behind Michaelangelo and Raphael, I found him strides ahead.

I adore the beauty in his nudity, the sculptured magnificence in the nude of man and sometimes, in women that were very few.

As once pronounced by Rudolf Nureye, 'The nude in a perfect body of a man, is far superior than all the beauty in a woman. I think he is perfectly right and Rodin knew about it. What I do not like in Rodin's work is that the finished product always look rough, jaggered and stone-heavy. There is never a flowing line because he was trapped in the dizzying, fertile imagination.

Fables

The Gates Of hell' is a fine example of his genius surfaced with multi fables, crouching women, symphonic poems, a tale from the Holy Bible and many males in their bare masculinity.

The Victor Hugo monument showing the writer with his muse

Looking at The Gates of Hell' is like reading a book on life style. In the embracing couples, there is both desire and chastity. Rodin never sculptured his figures to over-exposure in sexuality or sensuality unless otherwise he had no option.

They all had the Parisian face or her identity. Even in 'The Gates of Hell', it can be recognised though full of masterpieces. Rodin could never sculpt without a model and in certain instances he used his mistress, Camille Claudel as the model. He was so impressed by her personality, he stipulated in his will that a room in the Hotel Biron should be set aside for her sculptures.

Rodin was slow in his work. He wanted space to make them more remarkable and realistic with his signature in ruggedness. He saw beauty in ugliness no matter whether his model was man or woman.

To me, some looked bizarre and many cumbersome. I could never understand him like Goya on whose work I had repulsion the moment he was introduced to us in our art class.

I still shudder at Goya's paintings no matter how iconic his masterpieces were.

As for Rodin's sculptures, I vaguely remember seeing some at the Grand Palais Exhibition when I visited Paris for the first time. The famous Camille Claudel sculpture which was destroyed by the contradictions of her destiny, is being reassessed today as a masterpiece.

Temperamental

Apart from Balzac, he modelled George Bernard Shaw in the pose of The Thinker, in the nude. A temperamental sculptor, he exhibited his high emotions through agony of sensuality.

The next moment, he exalted it. He had the capacity of life and terror of death and of hell in its extreme velocity. The elements he displayed in turmoil, were the multiplicity of humanity and voice of history in his era. He had no limit to its exposure. Where would you find such a guy today?

A New Beginning

After the painful break with his model/mistress, Camille Claudel, Rodin decided on a new beginning and left behind his traumatic years especial after the Balzac affair.

He was financially secure and used his remaining strength to create a museum and bring together his sculptures and other collections because he believed by showing off his work that he was rendering some service to the cause of visual arts. With that thought in mind, he concentrated on his documents that were to become famous as his art.

With the fame he achieved he became solitary. And this fame rendered him perhaps more solitary than ever. He realised that ultimately nothing more than the sum of misunderstanding crystallise around a name.

The dance of life

The more popular he became, more solitary his life became. But then solitude can also be an antidote to the mind and body and refresh attitude which we find in his later work. Evil genii combined with tenderness or passion as lovingly modelled by him were very much found in 'documents'. Women occupied a position of great importance in Rodin's life and work for better or worse.

Shyness

Space we know is a basic necessity to an artist let alone a sculptor and during his lifetime, Rodin possessed about 20 different studios where he worked and stored his sculptures.

He was known to have occupied up to six at any given time. Friends, artists, and politicians all visited his studio. Rodin took pleasure in explaining his art to all of them overcoming his usual shyness.

Around 1894, Rodin met William Rothenstein and they became inseparable friends, meeting frequently in Paris and London.

He was the director of the Carfax Gallery in London and helped in promitong rodin's work in England, Rothenstein described Rodin as the greatest sculptor of the century with hands of a genius who went on to become the supreme artist of the Romantic Age.

Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin was born in November, 1840 and died in January, 1917 days after he married rose Beurer.