Auguste Rodin, 'The Age of Bronze'

Auguste Rodin, 'The Age of Bronze', about 1876. Museum no. A.33-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'The Age Of Bronze'
About 1876
Bronze
Height 180.3 cm
Inscribed 'Rodin' on the upper surface of the base and 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur Paris' on the side of the base
Museum no. A.33-1914
Given by the artist

This statue was the first large-scale work to bring Rodin to the attention of the public, but it also caused much controversy. The figure was so life-like that critics accused him of having taken plaster casts directly from the model. This slur was only overcome by the intervention of leading sculptors, who publicly defended Rodin's masterly modelling. Another problem for critics was that the work had no allegorical, mythological or narrative content, unlike most French sculpture at this date.

Rodin created the work during the Franco-Prussian war, when he left Paris to live in Belgium. It was his first monumental figure, and as a model he chose a soldier, Auguste Neyt, from the nearby barracks. Influenced by the sculpture of Michelangelo, which he had studied in the Louvre and also in Italy the previous year, Rodin concentrated his attention entirely on Neyt's body. 

The plaster was bought by the French government in 1880, though it was not cast in bronze until 1884, a date that marks the official acceptance of Rodin's work.

Auguste Rodin, 'The Prodigal Son'

Auguste Rodin, 'The Prodigal Son', about 1885-7. Museum no. A.34-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'The Prodigal Son'
About 1885-7
Bronze
Height 138 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the upper surface of the base and 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur Paris' on the back of the base
Museum no. A.34-1914
Given by the artist

In 1880 Rodin was asked to design a bronze portal and doors for the new Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris. The project became known as The Gates of Hell and occupied Rodin for much of his life. Although the commission was never completed, many of its ideas were developed as separate sculptures.

The Prodigal Son, with its many versions, is an example of Rodin's reuse and adaptation of favourite themes and compositions. It is derived from a figure originally planned low down on the right-hand panel of the doors, (see image below left) where it was combined with a fleeing female figure for the group called Fugit Amor (Love Flees). Rodin explained that it expressed psychological tension and distress: 'I have accented the swelling of the muscles to express distress… I have exaggerated the straining of the tendons which indicates the outbreak of prayer.'

It was first exhibited in 1894 in the Salon de la Plume as a single free-standing figure, with the title The Child of the Age.

Design for The Gates of Hell, c.1880. The figures here are in similar poses to that used in The Prodigal Son.

Auguste Rodin, 'Cybele'

Auguste Rodin, 'Cybele', about 1904-5. Museum no. A.35-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Cybele'
About 1904-5
Bronze
Height 161 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the right side of the base and 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur, Paris' on the back of the base
Museum no. A.35-1914
Given by the artist

This was the first of Rodin's truncated, partial figures or 'fragments' to be shown as sculpture in its own right, rather than as an incomplete study. Inspired in part by damaged classical sculpture and incomplete work by Michelangelo, which he had studied in the Louvre and in Italy, these partial figures held great significance for the development of sculpture in the 20th century.

A small version of the figure was originally conceived for The Gates of Hell. The enlarged plaster version, exhibited as 'une figure' in the 1905 Salon, was probably the work of Rodin's trusted assistant Henri Le Bossé. This bronze is the only cast made in Rodin's lifetime. It was produced specially for an exhibition of contemporary French art at Grosvenor House in London in 1914 and called Cybele, after the ancient Greek goddess of the earth for this London showing.

The model was Adèle Abruzzesi, an Italian woman whom Rodin admired. His close associates called the figure and a related one Abruzzesi Seated and Abruzzesi Reclining.

Auguste Rodin, 'The Muse'

Auguste Rodin, 'The Muse', 1896. Museum no. A.36-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'The Muse'
1896
Bronze
Height 144.5 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on upper surface of base, 'Alexis Rudier./Fondeur, Paris' on back of base
Museum no. A.36-1914
Given by the artist

Rodin frequently explored the further possibilities that arose from existing projects, revisiting the form, scale, material and, most significantly, the intention of his ideas. The Muse began as small-scale figure on The Gates of Hell portal, where it appears on the right of the central tympanum (the rectangular area of relief sculpture immediately above the doors).

Rodin later developed the figure as The Inner Voice, one of two muses intended for the monument to the French writer Victor Hugo, commissioned in 1886. His composition showed a naked Hugo flanked by two naked muses. The commissioners rejected this proposal as unsuitable for its proposed location in the Panthéon, though they allowed him to continue with the project.

Then, after many revisions, Rodin arrived at this figure. By amputating the arms and excising the drapery that covered the knee, he removed all extraneous detail. The figure now signalled Rodin's increasingly conceptual approach to sculpture. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who worked as Rodin's secretary for a time, wrote of it, 'Again and again in his figures Rodin returned to this bending inward, to this intense listening to one's own depth… Never was human body assembled to such an extent about its inner self, so bent by its own soul'.

Auguste Rodin, 'The Fallen Angel'

Auguste Rodin, 'The Fallen Angel', 1895. Museum no. A.37-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'The Fallen Angel'
1895
Bronze
Height 53 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the upper surface of the base and 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur. Paris' on the back of the base
Museum no. A.37-1914
Given by the artist

Rodin explored the human form in extreme physical and emotional states in a number of works (for example, The Prodigal Son). Here a winged figure has collapsed on the ground and is held by a second naked female. The group is thought to evoke the vain flight of our illusions, though the intimacy of the two figures may also reflect Rodin's interest in the writing of Baudelaire.

He also extracted single figures from groups to create individual pieces, such as The Muse, or used existing individual figures in new combinations to form groups. The winged figure here, for example, is based on the Torso of Adèle, first modelled in the late 1880s as a siren figure for a villa in Nice and reused later on The Gates of Hell (upper left of the tympanum) and as a kneeling figure in Eternal Spring.

Rodin's appreciation of the formal aspects of the human body and his facility for creating new compositions was inspired by his vast collection of models and plaster casts. Turning them in his hand, he examined their formal properties and considered how the different pieces might be combined to create new sculpture.

This group has been known as The Fall of Icarus, and Illusions Received by the Earth, but is now generally accepted by its present title. Just as Rodin changed the formal elements of his sculpture he also changed their titles with equal facility. (See also La France, Museum no. A.39-1914)

Auguste Rodin, 'Torso of a Woman'

Auguste Rodin, 'Torso of a Woman', about 1914. Musuem no. A.38-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Torso of a Woman'
About 1914
Bronze on plaster pedestal
Height 64 cm (torso only)
Marked 'Alexis. Rudier/Fondeur, Paris'
Museum no. A.38-1914
Given by the artist

Rodin in his studio, by William Rotherstein (1908-1993). Museum no. E.2134-1920 (click image for larger version)

The free approach to form, sources and media that can be seen in Rodin's work anticipates developments in later 20th-century sculpture. He studied and collected classical art, and later in life made assemblages. Here he has placed his own bronze torso on a plaster cast of a classical marble pedestal from his own collection.

The truncation of the torso highlights its formal properties, making it more abstract and less naturalistic. Rodin sometimes asked his models to sit on the ground with their back to him, arms and legs outstretched in front. 'In that position', he said, 'the back, which narrows at the waist and enlarges at the hips resembles an exquisitely curved vase, an amphora which contains within its flanks the life of the future'. By setting the torso on a classically derived plinth, Rodin invited viewers to see the bronze as something set apart to be admired, just like an ancient Greek vase.

A recent inspection of the bronze torso has revealed the presence of many of the metal pins that held the sand core in position during the casting process.

Auguste Rodin, 'La France'

Auguste Rodin, 'La France', about 1904. Museum no. A.39-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'La France'
About 1904
Bronze
Height 64 cm
Inscribed 'A Rodin' on the drapery at the front of the bust and 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur, Paris' on the lower left corner of the background
Museum no. A.39-1914
Given by the artist

The face is a likeness of the gifted sculptress, Camille Claudel (1864-1943), Rodin's pupil, assistant and lover.  Originally it was called Byzantine Empress and Bust of a Young Warrior, but when Edward VII visited Rodin's Paris studio in 1908 it was renamed St George (St George being the patron saint of England). In 1914, when Rodin presented the work to the V&A in honour of French and British soldiers in the war, he patriotically renamed it La France.

Rodin's innate awareness of how sculpture occupies the space it inhabits is highlighted by the niche that frames the head. Originally, the head faced to the right, but it was reversed in 1908.

Auguste Rodin, 'Crouching Woman'

Auguste Rodin, 'Crouching Woman', about 1891. Museum no. A.40-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Crouching Woman'
About 1891
Bronze
Height 33 cm
Not inscribed
Museum no. A.40-1914
Given by the artist

By the 1890s the acutely observed naturalistic detail of Rodin's earlier work was replaced by a more conceptual approach that anticipated developments in 20th-century sculpture.

This figure is related to Rodin's studies for Iris, Messenger of the Gods, which was intended to surmount a second but uncompleted version of the monument to Victor Hugo commissioned in 1891. The head, limbs and torso, however, were originally completely separate, pre-existing elements. The fusion of these separately conceived pieces disturbs the equilibrium of the sculpture and creates a sense of dynamic unease.

The head exists in an enlarged form in the Musée Rodin, with the title of Large Head for Iris, though it was also called Head of Demeter. A cast of the enlarged version was also given to the V&A as part of Rodin's 1914 gift. (See Head of Iris, Museum no. A.41-1914)

Auguste Rodin, 'Head of Iris'

Auguste Rodin, 'Head of Iris', about 1905. Museum no. A.41-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Head of Iris'
About 1905
Bronze
Height 58.4 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin.' on the right of the base
Museum no. A.41-1914
Given by the artist

This is an enlarged version of the head of the Crouching Woman. Rodin believed that light falling across broad planes and broken surfaces helped create form in the much the same way that painters in Renaissance Venice, like Titian, had used colour to evoke form and volume.

The modernity of Rodin's approach is expressed here through the block-like forms and the seam lines left by the plaster moulds (these are usually removed). Their presence challenges conventional ideas of 'ideal beauty' and what might be conventionally accepted as a finished sculpture. Rodin's Head of Iris, like The Crouching Woman, was to influence later 20th-century sculptors.
 

Auguste Rodin, 'Honoré De Balzac'

Auguste Rodin, 'Honoré De Balzac', 1891-2. Museum no. A.42-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Honoré De Balzac' (1799-1850)
1891-2
Bronze on a marble base
Height 41.5 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the front of the left shoulder and 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur, Paris' on the back of the right shoulder
Museum no. A.42-1914
Given by the artist

The bust is one of the first studies for a monument commemorating Balzac, commissioned in 1891 by the Society of Writers under the presidency of Emile Zola.

Balzac had then been dead for over 40 years. Rodin attempted to overcome this difficulty by researching the writer's life and visiting the region around Tours where he had lived in order to study the local facial types. But another, and more reliable, source for this bust was probably a portrait of Balzac of about 1822, attributed to Achille Devéria. The spirited and free handling of the clay, retained in the bronze, together with the erect head and direct gaze of the sitter, convey the confidence and determination associated with youth.

Later - and controversially - Rodin decided to represent Balzac as an older man, over life size, enveloped in a long, loose robe. He may have included the earlier bust in the 1914 Grosvenor House exhibition as a reference to that final version.

Auguste Rodin, 'Mademoiselle Camille Claudel'

Auguste Rodin, 'Mademoiselle Camille Claudel', 1882-99. Museum no. A.43-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Mademoiselle Camille Claudel' (1856-1945)
1882-99
Bronze on agate base
Height 24 cm (without base)
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the left side and also in relief on the under surface. Signed by the founder 'Alexis Rudier' on the centre back of the neck
Museum no. A.43-1914
Given by the artist

Camille Claudel first met Rodin around 1882, when she was seventeen. Their affair lasted 15 years, and during this period she progressed from student and model to one of Rodin's trusted assistants. She also became an independent painter and sculptor in her own right: 'I showed her where to find gold,' said Rodin, 'but the gold she found was her own'.

Unfortunately, Claudel suffered from mental illness, and in 1914 was taken into a home, where she remained until her death in 1945. Rodin has frequently been criticised for dominating her work and contributing to her illness, but after they parted he did also encourage her to submit her work to the Paris Salon.

Many of the more sensuous figures Rodin created for The Gates of Hell date from the time of their affair. This sensitive portrait conveys the calm, intelligent beauty of Claudel's early days. It exists in several versions and a number of materials, including plaster, marble and glass. This bronze was cast by the firm of Alexis Rudier in 1913.

Auguste Rodin, 'Miss Eve Fairfax'

Auguste Rodin, 'Miss Eve Fairfax', about 1904-5. Museum no. A.44-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Miss Eve Fairfax' (1871-1978)
Bronze
About 1904-5
Height 44.5 cm
Inscribed 'Rodin' on the back of the right shoulder and by the founder 'Montagutelli Fres/Paris/Cire Perdue' on the centre back
Museum no. A.44-1914
Given by the artist

From 1900 onwards Rodin frequently received commissions for portrait busts of statesmen and fashionable women. This portrait was commissioned by Ernest Beckett, Lord Grimthorpe, who had been introduced to Rodin by the British sculptor John Tweed. Eve Fairfax was briefly engaged to Beckett and she sat for Rodin several times during the period 1901-9.

Their meetings and correspondence brought Rodin to a closer, more personal knowledge of his sitter. He admired her cool Englishness and what lay beneath her calm exterior, describing her as 'A Diana and a satyr in one'. Of Englishwomen, he said, 'How flat chested they are. Oh, those planes and the bony structure.'

This bronze appears to have been cast from a clay or plaster study. The marble version given to Eve Fairfax by Rodin is now in the Johannesburg Art Gallery, South Africa.

Auguste Rodin, 'The Duchesse de Choiseul'

Auguste Rodin, 'The Duchesse de Choiseul', 1908. Museum no. A.45-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'The Duchesse de Choiseul' (1864-1919)
Bronze
1908
Height 36.5 cm
Stamped by the founder 'Montagutelli Fres. Paris. Cire Perdue' on the back of the sitter's left shoulder
Museum no. A.45-1914
Given by the artist

The Duchesse de Choiseul was an American of French descent. Born Claire Coudert, she married the Duke de Choiseul in 1891. She enjoyed a close friendship with Rodin from about 1904 until he ended their relationship in 1912. Rodin called her his 'little bacchante' but his friends thought her a bad influence as she dominated his life, interfered with his work and encouraged the elderly sculptor to drink. She was, however, responsible for introducing Rodin to the American millionaire Thomas Ryan, who was instrumental in introducing his work to the USA. (See Museum no. A.48-1914)

Rodin and his friend and subject, the Duchesse de Choiseul (1864-1919). (click image for larger version)

Both this portrait and its companion (Museum no. A.46-1914) are close studies of an intimate friend rather than formal, commissioned works. Rodin was completely free to observe and draw the duchess in a most natural way, capturing her vigour and lively personality. In this version she is smiling, her lips parted. In both versions, her hair is shown springing suddenly from her forehead, an indication that she wore false hair.

Auguste Rodin, 'Duchesse de Choiseul'

Auguste Rodin, 'Duchesse de Choiseul', 1908. Museum no.A.46-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Duchesse de Choiseul' (1864-1919)
1908
Bronze
Height 34 cm
Inscribed 'Rodin' on the left shoulder and by the founder 'Montagutelli Fres. Paris, Cire Perdue' on the back of the same shoulder
Museum no. A.46-1914
Given by the artist

Rodin and his friend and subject, the Duchesse de Choiseul (1864-1919). (click image for larger version)

Auguste Rodin, 'George Wyndham'

Auguste Rodin, 'George Wyndham', 1904. Museum no. A.47-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'George Wyndham' (1863-1913)
1904
Bronze on marble base
Height 42 cm (without base)
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the sitter's left shoulder and by the founder 'Alexis Rudier/Fondeur. Paris' on the back of the right shoulder
Museum no. A.47-1914
Given by the artist

George Wyndham, Chief Secretary for Ireland from 1900 to 1905, was a soldier and writer as well as a politician. Rodin was introduced to him by the poet William E. Henley, friend of the sculptor John Tweed, one of his most stalwart supporters in England.

In 1902 George Wyndham presided over the banquet at the Café Royal in London to celebrate the presentation of the cast of St John the Baptist to V&A. Later, in 1912, Rodin appealed to Wyndham to support the way he wished The Burghers of Calais to be displayed in London.

For this bust, Rodin was to go to Ireland, but in the end it was Wyndham who went to Meudon. He was delighted by the portrait and greatly enjoyed the sittings, writing to his sister, 'We have run over the whole Universe lightly but deeply'.
 

Auguste Rodin, 'Thomas Fortune Ryan'

Auguste Rodin, 'Thomas Fortune Ryan', 1909. Museum no. A.48-1914

Auguste Rodin, (1840-1917)
'Thomas Fortune Ryan' (1851-1928)
1909
Bronze
Height 61 cm
Inscribed 'A. Rodin' on the front right and stamped 'Alexis Rudier Fondeur/Paris' on the back of the right shoulder
Museum no. A.48-1914
Given by the artist

Thomas Ryan was an American millionaire, introduced to Rodin by the Duchesse de Choiseul. He thought Rodin was a genius and played a major role in promoting his work in the USA. In 1910 he financed for the purchase of ten of Rodin's works for the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

Ryan sat for his portrait at the Hôtel Biron (now the Musée Rodin) in 1909, shortly after Rodin had rented studio space there. As neither spoke the other's language, the sittings were conducted in silence. Rodin's portrait captures the strength of Ryan's character as well as his physical power - he was broad-shouldered and over six feet tall. Versions in bronze, silver and marble were made for Ryan's own collection, all of them delivered by 1910.

Auguste Rodin, 'Cupid and Psyche'

Auguste Rodin, 'Cupid and Psyche', c.1908. Museum no. A.49-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Cupid and Psyche'
About 1908
Marble
Height 66 cm
Museum no. A.49-1914
Given by the artist

This sculpture developed from one of the groups in The Gates of Hell. Rodin explored the subject over a number of years, the earliest dating from before 1886, and produced it in several other versions, as well as drawing it repeatedly.

This marble version was probably carved by his trusted assistants and technicians, under his supervision, as was normal workshop practice at the time. The contrast of the rough-hewn rock with the smooth surface of the figures indicates Rodin's admiration for the work of Michelangelo.

Auguste Rodin, 'Dante'

Auguste Rodin, 'Dante', c.1908. Museum no. A.50-1914

Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
'Dante'
About 1908
Terracotta
Height 19 cm
Museum no. A.50-1914
Given by the artist

Rodin gave this work the title 'Dante' when it was first exhibited at Grosvenor House in July 1914. He was a great admirer of Dante, and The Inferno was the initial inspiration for the subject matter of The Gates of Hell. The head is actually a portrait of the American businessman and writer John Wesley de Kay (1872-1938), of whom Rodin made several busts around 1908.