Auguste Rodin - Art in the Classroom February...

Updated January 2017

Auguste Rodin 1840 – 1917

Impressionism, Modern Art

In the black cabinet you will find a small sculpture of The Thinker. It is not recommended that you carry this around, as it is heavy. Rather, please take advantage of the digital images available on the website. Posters: The Art Elements & Principles posters to use in the discussion On the NSS PTA website you will find digital images of The Thinker, The Shade, and The Man with the Broken Nose available for download. These can be sent to the teacher to project on their Smartboards. In the black cabinet you will find a white binder with a copy of this presentation and several 8.5 x 11 prints of the other works referenced in this presentation.

Auguste Rodin

Art in the Classroom North Stratfield School

Personal Information Name: Auguste Rodin Nationality: French Born: November 12, 1840 in Paris, France Died: November 17, 1917 in Paris, France Lived: Rodin lived in France most of his life, and with the exception of some years out

of Paris for schooling, and several years in Brussels. Family: Rodin was the second child in his family. He had a sister, Maria, who was 2

years older than Rodin. He married Rose Beuret (his long-time companion and model) in 1917. They had one son – Auguste-Eugéne born 1866.

Professional Information

Type of artist: Rodin was a sculptor. He also drew, but primarily for his sculpting. Style/Technique: One of America’s favorite and highly recognized artists, he was fortunate to

have his pictures grace the cover of The Saturday Evening Post (with a circulation of two million readers a week) for 40 years, thus giving him the largest audience of any other artist in history. He sold his first cover painting to the Post in 1916 and ended up creating 322. His personal contribution during the World War II was the famous “Four Freedoms” posters he painted, symbolizing for millions the war aims for President Franklin Roosevelt. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson sat for him for portraits, and he painted many world figures, including Nassar of Egypt and Nehru of India.

Artist Background Rodin was born to the family of Jean-Baptiste and Marie Rodin. His father was a lower level Police officer. They had moved to Paris in 1830. Rodin had a sister, Maria, who was two years older. His family was devout Catholic, and Auguste was sent to Catholic school. He was not a star student, and for three years, he was sent to an uncle’s boarding school to help improve his reading and writing. He returned to Paris after the three years, not much better as a student, but he had begun to draw prolifically, on any paper he could get his hands on. He asked his parents if he could go to art school. Initially they refused as they felt that being an artist was not an honorable profession. However, after time, they agreed, and Rodin enrolled in the Ecole Imperiale Spéciale de Dessin et de Mathéthathiques, also know as the “Petit Ecole,” in 1854. For the next three years, he learned the basics of drawing and craftsmanship (jewelry design and interior design). The school was not solely intended to train artists, it also served to trained artisans.

Auguste Rodin


After the Petit Ecole, Rodin attended the Collége de France to study literature and history. He used these studies to expand his experiences, study the human condition and build his own visual library. Some of the poetry/literature that he read was later translated into his art. It was during this time that Rodin also applied to the Grande Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was rejected as a sculpture student each time because the sculpture that he provided did not fit the manner and taste of the admissions department. This rejection was a crushing blow to Rodin, but the rejection along with the absence of further formal education created the great artist that we are studying here. In 1862, Rodin’s sister, with whom he was very close, died after an operation. Her death was a major loss to Rodin, and as a result, he entered a monastic order called the Fathers of the Holy Sacrament. He struggled with the barren reality of the monastic vocation for approximately a year until the head of the order, Father Pierre-Julien Eymard, persuaded Rodin to devote his life to sculpture not the monastery. Rodin now began to focus on his sculpture creating several pieces (most notably the Man with a Broken Nose). In 1864, Rodin met Rose Beuret a seamstress who became one of his models, life long companion, mother of his only son, and eventually his wife. In 1870, France was at war with Prussia, and Rodin joined the French National Guard. He continued to work on his sculptures, even creating several sculpture of his commanding officers. He was discharged by the Guard in 1871 due to his poor vision. It was at this time that Rodin moved to Brussels to renew a working relationship with another French sculptor – Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse. By 1873 he had split with Carrier-Belleuse, and began working with a Belgian sculptor Antoine van Rasburgh. This relationship lasted 4 years. At the end of 1874, Rodin set off from Italy to study Michelangelo, and to celebrate the 400th anniversary of his death. He studied the works of both Michelangelo and Donatello while on this trip and they were very influential to him. He returned to Paris in 1878, and embarked on the most prolific and creative years of his life. Many of the jobs (commissions) that he received were for monuments in public spaces (parks, plazas, etc.) or buildings. During this time he created The Walking Man, The Gates of Hell, The Kiss, Fugitive Love, I Am Beautiful, Prodigal Son, Crouching Woman, The Thinker, Adam, Eve, The Burghers of Calais, and many other. In 1899, the French state planned a Universal Exposition to herald the arrival of the new century – 1900. Rodin decided that he would not be just another presenter as he had been in the 1889 Exposition. He decided to create his own Exposition Rodin (a one man show) and position it just outside the main fairgrounds. He built a building, moved a large portion of his life’s work and promoted the show masterfully. At the Exposition, he received commissions from museums around the world for bronze or marble replicas of some of his most famous works. He now had to fill all the orders! The Exposition Rodin had other benefits as well. Commissions for busts (portraits in sculpture) became a major portion of his work. And he began to collect accolades from a variety of sources – he was elected President of the International Society of Painters, Sculptors, and Engravers, The French made him a Commander in the Legion of Homor, and others.

Auguste Rodin


Rodin continued to enjoy what could be described as the good life, he was very popular, and loved to host other famous people for dinner parties. In 1913 Rodin suffered a mild stroke, from which he recovered. By 1915 he returned to his home in Meudon (a suburb of Paris), and his health began to decline. In 1916, he bequeathed his estate to France. He married Rose on January 29, 1917 (she was 72 years old and he was 76). Two weeks later Rose died of pneumonia. Later that year on November 17, 1917 Rodin died at Meudon. Artistic Persona

Rodin worked in France at a time when painting was the rage. This was due to many things: the lack of wealthy patrons as in the past who would subsidize artists; the painter needed only canvas and paint to work; the sculptor, on the other hand, had material expenses far greater, especially when working in marble or bronze. The impressionist movement (Renior, Monet, etc.) was at its height during Rodin’s life, and in fact Monet was born in the same year as Rodin. Since there was little going on artistically in sculpture in France at the time, Rodin turned to what had gone before him – mainly Italian masters like Bernini, Michelangelo, and Donatello as well as the Greeks and Romans. The sculptural heritage of France seemed sadly lacking, so Rodin saw the opportunity not to break with tradition (since there seemed to be little) but to seek to revive sculpture and return it to its best. Most of his work had a rough unfinished look to it, often looking like lumps of clay were simply put on the sculpture. Very few of his works have a smooth surface that you might associate with sculpture. “He never claimed to have introduced anything fresh, but had rediscovered what had been lost…The Greeks had possessed it. But in France’s official art of the day, it was entirely lacking. His contribution…was therefore an act of restoration.” Many sculptors of the day maintained a livelihood by winning public competitions for designing monuments for public spaces. Most entries were very conservative, but Rodin’s were always distinctive and unexpected, and often lead to controversy. Until Rodin became more famous and popular, this caused him to ultimately lose many commissions. Rodin received little formal training in any form of art. His years at the Petit Ecole were his main training. As such, he was mostly self-taught. From his training at the Petit Ecole, one of these instructors Horace Lecoq encouraged his students to draw as much from memory as from the model in front of them. He also helped the students learn to capture the energy of a moving figure by outlining the figure in the air with a finger, and then repeating the activity with their eyes closed! Later in his life, visitors to his studio would marvel as Rodin would create clay models while either staring at his human model or out into space, and his hands would create images and forms that he was not looking at. Rodin’s art can be characterized in two main phases– the raw and monumental art that he produced up-until around 1900 and then the more polished and smaller works that he produced in his later life.

Auguste Rodin


Featured Artwork The Thinker (1880) (Bronze) Show: Digital image The Thinker is the most famous of all Rodin sculptures. It is famous both from an artistic standpoint, and also because of its use (perhaps overuse) in advertising, and marketing. But it is also chosen for Art in the Classroom for this reason. Almost every student has seen a reproduction of this work either on television, in a cartoon, or magazine. It was originally conceived as a focal point of one of Rodin’s major pieces – a great doorway. The Thinker was intended to be the poet Dante as he conceived his plan for the Divine Comedy. But the power of the piece also gave way to it being used as a standalone sculpture. The Thinker is involved in the process of thinking, but not only with his brain, he is also thinking with every strained muscle in his body.

The Shade (1880) (Bronze) Show: Digital image The Shade is the name given to this sculpture of a man that was created and cast in bronze three times. Placed next to each other, they are identical, seen from the left, straight on, and from the right. “They all three made of themselves a wheel” was how the figures of the shades was described. Thus Rodin’s decision to use three identical figures may have come from this statement. In classical literature, a shade is another name for a spirit or ghost. The figure is highly detailed and muscular; athletic. Ask: How do you feel about this sculpture? What do you think the sculptor was trying to make you feel? Was he successful? The neck of the figure is bent unnaturally. This exaggeration looks painful, which is the way the sculptor wanted this to look.

Auguste Rodin


The Man with the Broken Nose (1863-64) (Bronze) Show: Digital image Rodin made a first model of this piece on plaster in 1864, but lost the back of the bust (it fell off). Later, in 1880, a second model, this time in bronze, was cast and is the surviving cast of the piece. The sitter for the bust, which began as a simple portrait, was an elderly workman from the Saint-Marcel district of Paris, who went by the name of “Bibi”. By emphasizing certain features – the broken nose, the deep lines, the style of the beard – Rodin established a parallel between this face and Michelangelo’s, and thus the individual portrait dissolved into an archetype. Ask: What is an Archetype? Definition: an original pattern or model from which all things of the same kind are copied or on which they are based; a model or first form; prototype. According to the artist himself: "That mask determined all my future work; it's the first modeled piece I did. Ever since, I've tried to see my works from all possible points of view and to draw them in every one of their aspects. That mask has been on my mind in every thing I have done".

His later portraits have a singular life and individuality, partly because Rodin stayed on his contour modeling principles. Many people did not like this mask because it presented a man with a broken nose and strong, sharp facial features. He was considered ugly. Ask: What do you think of this mask? General Discussion: Select a piece from the options and ask:

• What do you think is going on in the sculpture? Create a story about it. • How does this sculpture make you feel? What he is thinking about? • Do you think this sculpture is beautiful? Ugly? Scary? Interesting? Why? • Rodin’s work is more than anything about the expression of two things: motion/movement

and feeling/passion. The Thinker: Is there about to be movement, or did he just sit down? The Shade: Was he swinging his head around? Walking?

• What is it about the sculpture that conveys feelings • Much of Rodin’s sculpture is meant to be viewed outside in the sunlight. Discuss with the

children how this piece might look in the daytime, dusk, or after dark.

Auguste Rodin


Talking about the Elements of Art You can use these points to talk about the featured sculptures. Color: What kinds of colors are used? Cool colors – blue and green? or warm colors – red, yellow, orange? The sculpture is made of bronze, and many things affect the look of the material. Shape: What shapes do you see? As a sculpture, this is clearly a 3-dimensional piece. There are and lines – where do you see them? Texture: What textures do you see? Rough, smooth. There is a great deal of detail in his body. Line:

• Does Rodin’s use of lines create tension? Yes. For Thinker, although Rodin has only the human form to work with the bending of the right arm and lean on his left knee create a sense of tension. With The Shade the straightness of his neck and the extending arm.

• Do the lines that Rodin used draw your attention to any one area of the sculpture? Yes, the lines and the position of the body draw your eye to his head and right hand or in the case of the shade, to where he is pointing.

• Are the lines clean and hard or soft? For the most part, the lines are soft as the human body does not have particularly hard lines.

• Is the sculpture highly detailed or not detailed? Highly detailed

Light: As the light on a sculpture is formed by the location that it is in, you may want the children to react to the light on the sculpture in the classroom. Space: Identify items in the: Keep in mind that with sculpture it depends on the angle you are looking at the sculpture from.

• Foreground: The objects and ground that are “before” or in front of everything else. • Middle ground: The objects and ground that are mid-distant, in front of the background. • Background: The farthest away objects.

Composition: Is the sculpture balanced? The Thinker: Is he balanced, or do you think he is about to leap off the rock, or fall forward? The Shade: Looks like he is using his head and arm to keep balance even though it looks strange

Auguste Rodin


Resources https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17016249 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15582363 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35993566 William Harlan Hale, The World of Rodin 1840 - 1917, Time-Life Books, 1969. Tim Marlow, Rodin, PRC Publishing, 1992. Frederick Hartt, Art A History of Painting, Sculpture Architecture, Prentice Hall, 1985 David Piper, The Illustrated History of Art, Bounty Books, 1991. H.W. Janson, The History of Art, Prentice Hall, 1967. Auguste Rodin, www.ibiblio.com/wm/paint/auth/rodin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/collections/sculptures/three-shades http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/collections/sculptures/man-broken-nose https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_with_the_Broken_Nose

Auguste Rodin - Art in the Classroom February...

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