Auguste Rodin Great Sculptor

Auguste Rodin Great Sculptor
IMAGE SOURCE|- frenchculture.org

The Sculptor

Auguste Rodin’s full name was Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin. He was born in Paris, France, in 1940. He attended a boarding school which was run by his uncle. But he left it in 1854. After that, he went to an art school called petite Ecole.

There, studied art and mathematics. In his early days, he experimented with drawing and modeling with clay. Later, he also applied to France’s prestigious art school, Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but was rejected.

Auguste Rodin was French sculptor, illustrator and painter. He was the creator of beautiful world-famous bronze and marble figures. He is considered to be one of the greatest portraitists in the history of sculpture. Rodin’s most famous artworks include “The Thinker’ and ‘The Kiss’.

Career Challenges of Rodin

He did odd jobs to support his family. Along with his jobs, he continued to practice art. In 1858, he started to work in an art workshop. There, he developed his sculpting skills. One of his pieces from that time was a sculpture of a man with a broken nose.

 Rodin faced many rejections in his life. He summated his first major work, ‘Mask of Man with the Broken Nose’, to the Salon, an art exhibition. The piece was rejected because it represented the face of a servant and ignored traditional ideals of beauty.

Inspiration for the ‘Age of Bronze

His next work was The Age of Bronze’. It was his most talked-about piece in Parisian society. Rodin got the inspiration for the Age of Bronze’ from Michelangelo’s ‘Dying Slave. He always showed human from in his work.

Rodin tried to attempt the same and combined his own ideas on human nature for his statue. As a result, throughout his career, Rodin was associated with and compared to Michelangelo.

Traveled To France for Study

In 1877, he traveled to France studied Gothic cathedrals, and researched the architectural feature and observations of the gothic style. In 1879, he worked in a porcelain factory. He also received a new project called ‘The Gates of Hell’. This work was commissioned by the French Ministry of Fine Arts.

He took the inspiration for this masterpiece from the 12th-century epic poem The Divine Comedy, by Dante and from The Flower of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, published around 1857. However, he died before finishing it.

Rodin’s most famous works from influenced by some of the great artists of Parisian society including the writers Victor Hugo Honore de Balzac, and the artist Claude Lorrain.

Some Greatest Artworks

Other major artwork includes The Kiss’, Ugolino’, ‘Adam’, ‘Eve’ ‘and ‘The Thinker’, which were all his independent works. In 1889, he created a sculpture of Victor Hugo for the Pantheon and a statue of Claude Lorraine.

World Exhibition in Paris

In 1894 Rodin moved to Mendon and participates in many exhibitions. In 1900, he participated in the World Exhibition in Paris, in which he displayed hundreds of his works. He established himself as an artist here. He also received honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Oxford.

The significant factor contributing to Rodin’s success as a portraitist was that the he continued to work on his skills throughout his life. His works were marked greatly by Realism.

His work was heavily inspired by Donatello and other great sculptors of the Renaissance. He also experimented with different techniques. He made ‘The Gates of Hell’ using several hundred pieces. His later works were more expressionist, such as the Monuments to Balzac’.

Met With Well-Known Painter in Hotel Biron

In his later years, he lived at the beautiful Hotel Biron. He was neighbors with the well-known painter, Henri Matisse; dancer, Isadora Duncan; and writer, Jean Cocteau. He used the ground floor as his studio and helped avert its destination y entering into an agreement with the French government. The agreement required him to donate all his work to the State in return. After his death, the same hotel was converted into a museum in his honor.

Love Life of Rodin

Rosin remained unmarried for most of his life; he had a son with his long-term partner Rose Beuret. Later, he was in a relationship with a sculptor named Camille Claudel. Claudel was also the inspiration for Rodin’s most famous work, ‘The Kiss’.

But they soon separated, and Rodin married Beuret in 1917. Rodin died on November 17, 1917, in Meudon at the age of 77. His popularity had declaimed towards the end, but after his death, his legacy solidified. Rodin remains one of the few sculptors widely known even outside the visual arts society.