Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin ( Paris , November 12 1840 - Meudon , November 17 1917 ) was a French sculptor . Rodin was a sculptor of impressionism .

Content

 * 1 Biography
 * 2 Style
 * 3 Trivia
 * 4 Museums
 * 5 Literature
 * 6 External links

Biography
Rodin was born in Paris, where he spent a very poor childhood. At fifteen he could enter the Ecole impériale the pattern called La Petite Ecole. His first teachers were Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran and Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux . Encouraged by his teachers, he sought to be admitted to the École des Beaux Arts, up to three times, but each time he was rejected by the jury. The academic conformists found when all are presented designs to bold.

Not discouraged by this failure he was. To earn money, he had to work with decorators, who put his exceptional skill appreciated. The death of his sister (1862) brought him to theFrères du Très-Saint-Sacrement. In 1863 creates the heavy bronze bust of the superior Peter Julian Eymard, witnessing a remarkable originality through its forceful expression.

Rodin met Rose Beuret, whom he would share the rest of his life. In 1870 he sculpted her bust .

The Thinker, 1881

In 1864 he ventured a first submission to the Salon, but his energetic Homme au nez cassé was refused. That same year, he offered his services to the famous Louis Carrier-Belleuse, who him for five years gave an adequate living situation, but with whom he got no further than the endless modeling meaningless figurines and decorative motifs for theater facades or gaudy homes.

In 1870 he lived in Brussels, again with Carrier-Belleuse. He would only return to Paris in 1878. The year 1875 was the turning point in Rodin's life. Rodin traveled to Italy and there opened the Renaissance -working of Michelangelo, both to Rome and to Florence , his genius. He was later to Bourdelle write: My liberation from academicism was created by Michelangelo.

Back in Brussels, he gave free rein to his enthusiasm and inspiration began his long, often polemical battle against the decadent official art. A magisterial l'Age d'Airain was a first result in 1876. He was encouraged by the admiration of Rainer Maria Rilke , Stéphane Mallarmé , Octave Mirbeau and Léon Gambetta .

In 1880 Rodin received his first official order. This Porte de l'Enfer he became famous. Rodin worked for more than six years to more than 200 images which were intended for it. Also, The Kiss and The Thinker, both inspired by the Divine Comedy of Dante , belong to this group.

His Porte de l'Enfer was not finished yet, when in 1886 the city of Calais was given a new assignment. He worked until 1888 at The Burghers of Calais .

In 1889 he created the monument Victor Hugo and Buenos Aires he made ​​in 1895, the monument Président Sarmiento. Meanwhile he made ​​from 1892 to 1897 schandaalverwekkende image Balzac, which was even denied by the Société des gens de lettres.

Thirteen years, between 1879 and 1892, Rodin experienced a tumultuous chaotic amorous relationship with his 24 years younger pupil Camille Claudel ; two years older sister of the French poet, writer, and diplomat Paul Claudel . Three weeks before her death married Rodin with his companion Rose Beuret, in January 1917. Ten months later, he died atMeudon, 77 years.

Style [ edit ]
Rodin was a sculptor of impressionism . He used nature to his work to show vivid look. His work stands out for the irregular surface, which causes the illumination flare. This glare display the image motion. This effect was not what he sought. This way of exhibiting Rodin tried to show the steps of the sculpture. As the painters work built up from color and light spots, as Rodin built his sculptures from clay and bronze. By visibly of the creative process, Rodin managed to the temporary aspect of his work have come forward. Another feature of impressionism in sculpture is the view that art is autonomous, form and intention are one unit and the viewer can see how the work was created. Therefore sometimes it seems that the work is not finished.

The volatile Impressionism Rodin, who was a friend of Claude Monet , Pierre Auguste Renoir and Stéphane Mallarmé, reached unprecedented heights. Emile-Antoine Bourdelle ,Aristide Maillol , Charles Despiau , François Pompon, the Argentine Sesostris Vitullo , the German Georg Kolbe and Russian Soudbinine came under his influence.

Besides innumerable sculptures he produced an impressive number of quick sketches, drawings, and whether or not gerehausseerde watercolors, often with confusing eroticism so that some critics called him sexually obsessed.

[Trivia Edit ]
On the night of 16 to 17 January 2007 in the museum garden of the Singer Museum in Laren NH a cast of The Thinker by Rodin stolen plus six other pictures. It was pulled from its pedestal, probably by means of a rope tied to the towing hook of a car. On January 28th 2008 was against the two perpetrators six year prison sentence. It had not been to do the cultural value of the images them, but the yield of the bronze .

Museums [ Edit ]
The Rodin Museum in Paris and the Rodin Museum in Philadelphia to see his many works by Rodin. In his place of death Meudon is a Rodin Museum with its plaster statues.

Other museums with his work include:
 * Sculpture of the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo
 * Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco in San Francisco
 * Hermitage in St. Petersburg
 * Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City
 * Sculpture Middelheim Open Air Sculpture Museum in Antwerp
 * Musée d'Orsay in Paris
 * Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid
 * Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent
 * Museum of Modern Art in New York City
 * National Gallery of Art in Washington DC
 * Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in Copenhagen
 * Singer Museum in Laren
 * Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven
 * Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
 * Garden of the Musée des Beaux Arts in Lyon