Brooklyn Museum Honors Rodin with Major Exhibition on Centennial of His Passing

The power of the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg is derived in part from seeing all these striking works in one place, experiencing the progression of his vision as well as the scale of so many of these pieces. This year, the Brooklyn Museum is doing a similar unveiling of its Rodin collection in what will undoubtedly be a rewarding experience for anyone able to take it in. The exhibition will feature 58 Rodin pieces, honoring the 100th anniversary of Rodin's death in November 1917. This body of work provides an overview of his career from 1840 to 1917 during one of the most significant periods in art history, the movement from classical to modern.

If you recall, this period included the transition through French Impressionism that included Monet, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Renoir. The sculptor Rodin was a close friend of Monet, the famous painter of water lilies, to whom he once wrote: “the same feeling of fraternity, the same love of art, has made us friends for ever… I still have the same admiration for the artist who helped me understand light, clouds, the sea, the Cathedrals that I already loved so much,but whose beauty awakened at dawn by your rendering touched me so deeply.” *

Auguste Rodin, who grew up poor, was teased for his lack of academic prowess and retreated into shyness. Around age ten he took an interest in drawing and molding clay and no doubt got enough strokes from this that he kept it up and pursued a career in art. Failing to get the recognition he desired resulted in an emotional collapse after which he recuperated in a monastery. After his recovery he rented a studio and began hiring models to pursue the recognition he believed he deserved.

His best known works include The Thinker, and The Kiss. He also produced busts of notable literary figures including Balzac and Victor Hugo, indicative of the caliber of his associations. A visit to Italy in 1875 resulted in his first-hand experience of Michelangelo's sculptures, inspiring a renewed pursuit of heightened realism in his own pieces. 

Like many artists doing groundbreaking work Rodin's achievements were not appreciated during much of his life. He didn't fit the mold of what was expected, had broken with tradition and pursued his own vision. By the turn of the century, however, he was world-renowned after his work was displayed at the World's Fair.

Rodin's The Thinker may be universally recognized, but is only one of the many thousands of busts and fragments and statues he created over the course of five decades. If you have the opportunity, the Brooklyn Museum will be sharing its collection throughout the winter. Or, you may wish to make your way to the Philadelphia shrine devoted to Rodin's work, the Rodin Museum, the only museum in the world outside of Paris that is wholly dedicated to Rodin's art.

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Four Quotes for Contemplation

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." --Auguste Rodin

"I invent nothing, I rediscover." --Rodin

"To any artist worthy of the name, all in nature is beautiful, because his eyes, fearlessly accepting all exterior truth, read there, as in an open book, all the inner truth." --Rodin

"The artist must create a spark before he can make a fire and before art is born, the artist must be ready to be consumed by the fire of his own creation." --Rodin

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Meantime, art goes on all around you. Dig it. 

Photo Source, The Thinker: Wiki Commons 

* http://www.musee-rodin.fr/en/collections/archives/letter-auguste-rodin-claude-monet