Rodin Sculptures

Between Rodin and sculpture it was love at first sight, total

identification, for better for worse, a mystical marriage that he

contracted in his seve~teenth year. "For the first time," he said

afterw~ds, "l saw separate pieces, arms, heads or feet, then 1

attempted the figure as a whole. Suddenly, I grasped what unity

was... I was in ecstasy... For the first time, 1 saw sculptor s

clay; I felt [ was ascending into heaven."

During the day, Rodin earned his living as a plasterer, giving

shape to the numerous monuments lavished by the architect

Haussmann upon the new Paris he was building for Napol6on

IlL At night, Rodin worked on his own sculptures. Amongst

these was the The Man with the Broken Nose (p.20), inspired

by BiN, an old workman with the features of a Greek statue.

The clay was split by the cold, but Rodin put it forward for the

1864 Salon nevertheless. It was, of course, rejected. Subse-

quently, one of his friends, to whom Rodin had generously

given it, exhibited this work at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts,

claiming that it was a superlative classical bust that he had

discovered in a junk store. It caused a sensation. Whereupon

the friend, triumphantly: "Well, let me tell you, the man who

made that, a man named Rodin, failed this school s entrance

exam three times, and this piece which you take for classical

was rejected by the Salon!"

Rodin spent six years in Belgian exile. He collaborated f!rst

with Carrier-Beneuse, then with van Rasboarg, on decorative

works which not only made him a living but matured his tech-

nique. Before settling in France, he visited ltaly; Raphael,

Michelangelo and the Sistine Chapel made an overwhelming

impression on him. In 1906, he wrote to Bourdelle: "My lib-

eration from academicism came through Michelangelo, who,

by teaching me (through observation) rules diametrically op-

posed to those 1 had been taught (the school of lngres), freed

me... His mighty hand was held out to me. He was the bridge

by which 1 crossed from one circle to the other..."

Now he was free to create his own masterpieces. No aca-

demic poses for Rodin; his models wandered freely around the

studio. The lithe, sinewy contours of one such masterpiece, The

Age (~( Bronze (p. 17), were as immediately admired in some

quarters as suspected in others. The work was too perfect, and