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diff --git a/old/50665-0.txt b/old/50665-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 5f782ad..0000000 --- a/old/50665-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3561 +0,0 @@ -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50665 *** - -AUGUSTE RODIN - -THE MAN--HIS IDEAS--HIS WORKS - -BY - -CAMILLE MAUCLAIR - -AUTHOR OF - -"THE GREAT FRENCH PAINTERS AND THE EVOLUTION OF FRENCH PAINTING FROM 1830" -"THE FRENCH IMPRESSIONISTS," ETC. - -TRANSLATED BY - -CLEMENTINA BLACK - -WITH FORTY PLATES - -NEW YORK - -E. P. DUTTON & CO. - -1905 - - - - -TO - -EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE - -AND - -ROGER MARX - - - - MY DEAR FRIENDS, - - One of you is a great painter, whose art and mind are - fraternally akin to Rodin's. The other is the first French - Art critic of our day, and has nobly defended Rodin from the - outset. - - For these reasons I felt it just and natural to dedicate - this book to both of you, as a testimony of my affection, - given in the presence of the English public, and under the - auspices of a name that unites all three of us in the love - of beauty. - C. M. - - - - -The photographs used as illustrations to the present volume are kindly -lent by M. Buloz, art publisher of Paris, to whom we offer our sincere -thanks; and for five of them--very remarkable in their effect (the -_Bellona,_ the bust of _Hugo_, the two studies of torsos for the _St. -John the Baptist,_ and the _Fair Woman who was a Helmet-maker_) we are -indebted to Messrs. Haweis and Coles, to whom we are no less grateful. -The very faithful portrait of M. Rodin is the work of M. Eckert, of -Prague. - - - - -PREFACE - - -Auguste Rodin is certainly the contemporary French artist about whom -most has been written, especially during the last ten years. In -addition to innumerable articles in newspapers and reviews, several -books have been devoted to him. In offering the present work to the -English public I think it desirable to define exactly the aim which I -propose to myself. To begin with, as my limits of size are somewhat -narrow, I shall endeavour to condense into a restricted space as many -interesting details as I can give, and to neglect nothing that may -contribute to a clear and precise presentment of Rodin's personality -and work. But such details have already been collected in some French -works; and if I were to content myself with presenting a new version of -them to the public I should have fulfilled but half of my task and my -duty. - -The other half interests me far more keenly. It seems to me that -after having told the reader all that he ought to know about a man, a -critic should then try to make a closer and deeper study of him--come -into contact with his ideas and his soul, form an original judgment of -him, and in short pass from the iconographie or biographic side to the -artistic and psychological side of his work. I have tried, therefore, -to begin where my fellow-workers have left off and to say exactly what -they do not appear to me to have said. - -The things written about Rodin have been mainly literary compositions, -admiring and lyrical passages, to which his favourite subjects have -served as texts. Much less has been heard about his personal ideas upon -the technical principles of sculpture, or about his methods of work. -The reason of this is primarily a fear of fatiguing the public, to -whom the technicalities of an art--which involve dry explanations--are -less interesting than the results. Moreover, it must be owned that -few writers understand these questions. In painting, as in sculpture, -persons who do not practise these arts, or who are not sufficiently -familiar with the brush and the chisel to understand the secrets of -works of art, even if not to produce them, generally prefer to avoid -these dangerous aspects and keep to literary eulogy. A work is -proclaimed great, and the reader is adjured to believe it so, but it is -infinitely more difficult to give him a clear, technical explanation of -why that work is great. Towards that quarter, therefore, I have chosen -to turn, expecting to find there things to say that cannot be read -elsewhere. - -Rodin has not merely created beautiful statues. He is an innovator, (or -rather a renovator), in his methods of sculpture, and that fact has -called down severe criticism on his head. A long-standing friendship, -which I reckon as an honour, has allowed me to have numerous -conversations with him upon the very basis of his art, upon the manner -in which he practises it, and upon his ideas in relation to his own -work and to ancient and modern sculpture. To these ideas the synthetic -mind of Rodin imparts so much vigour that they are the motives of his -work and cannot be separated from it. My desire has been to present -them; and instead of giving the public my own opinions, in passages of -more or less brilliancy, I wished to give those--so infinitely more -interesting--which have been uttered by the artist himself. Often, -in the course of this book, I shall be merely the transcriber while -he speaks, and I think my readers will be grateful to me for that. -Furthermore, in regard to technical points and to the way in which -Rodin conceives composition and modelling, I may--and even, in order to -inspire a just and necessary confidence, I should--say that when Rodin -exhibited his _Balzac_ his first innovation in his present manner, he -had so much faith in my friendship and in my critical powers that he -entrusted to me the duty of explaining these delicate points in the -French reviews,[1] and in a later lecture given at the Paris Exhibition -of 1900, in the pavilion where he was exhibiting the whole of his -works. These explanations, in their main lines, I have rewritten here. -In that portion I have endeavoured to do original critical work, after -having satisfied the biographical demands of the reader. I have avoided -discussions of too abstract an æstheticism; I believe that everything -can be said simply and in simple forms; I believe also that even in the -most subtle questions of art there is an inner light that renders them -accessible to all whose minds are sincere, and whose hearts are open to -emotion. But I hope that, in reading this book, people will understand -very exactly why a statue by Rodin is different from any other statue, -and why he made it so--a matter which too few writers have explained. -It is not so much my business to display abundantly the admiration -which I feel, but which, no more than my friendship, shall induce me to -turn my essay into a hymn of praise. - -Rodin himself is the first man to be wearied by some praises, and a -just observation upon his methods gives him much more pleasure. Like -every man of high intelligence, he would rather be understood than -praised. - -I believe myself to be filling a gap and satisfying a wish by giving -at the end of this volume some remarks upon the artists whom Rodin has -influenced. He is commonly treated as "a force of nature"; "an isolated -phenomenon"; people affect to consider him as a sort of immense -unconscious producer. These are absurd hyperboles. Rodin is a man of -strong will, logical, and conscious of what he is doing, and strongly -linked to the Greeks and to the Gothic school; he has very definite -theories, and several sculptors, of whom Rodin's extreme admirers do -not speak, preferring to leave their divinity alone in the clouds, draw -their inspiration from his views. I shall name some men to whom Rodin -is much attached and in whose work he takes pleasure in following the -development of his principles, for he knows what he wishes, whence -he comes and whither he goes, and has a horror of being thought a -visionary--a phenomenon, as people say in their indiscreet zeal; on the -contrary, he holds himself to be a real classical artist, whose example -cannot possibly be harmful. I have thought it well, also, to conclude -by a summary of the principal works or essays dealing with Rodin, at -least in France; and by a chronological list of his statues--that is to -say, of course, an approximate list, for many fragments of this great -mass of work have been destroyed by Rodin himself, especially in the -earlier part of his career, before 1877. No such list has ever been -made, and it may add to the interest of the present volume; I give -it under the artist's authorisation, for I made it in his house and -according to his advice. - -It is bad to repeat oneself. Yet I am anxious to say once more--and my -insistence will be understood--that my long friendship and personal -admiration for Auguste Rodin and my gratitude for the affectionate -regard that he shows me count for nothing here. A study is asked -of me, not a panegyric. When I have reckoned up the vast quantity -of work, the maker's life, theories, talks, doings, and influence, -very little room will be left for compliments. It will be for the -reader to think them. Many people who would have had a difficulty -in talking of sculpture have found Rodin a convenient subject for -literary declamations--too many for me to wish to imitate them. Such a -course would be pleasing neither to the artist nor to the public, and -would content them no more than it would content me. Precise details -about the man, the work, and the iconography; clear explanations of -technicalities and ideas--these form all my ambition. The statement of -facts will be enough to arouse love and admiration for Rodin; louder -than all praises and with a stronger claim speaks the work of thirty -years. - - C. M. - - -[1] "The Art of Rodin," _Revue des Revues,_ Paris, 15th June, 1898; and -lecture, 31st July, 1900. - - - - -CONTENTS - - -PREFACE - -I. YOUTH AND EARLY WORK OF RODIN--HIS FIRST ATTEMPTS; HIS TIME AT -CARRIER'S--HIS STAY IN BRUSSELS AND WORK THERE--"THE AGE OF BRASS" AT -THE SALON OF 1877; THE INCIDENT ARISING IN REGARD TO IT--THE "ST. JOHN -THE BAPTIST"; BEGINNING OF RODIN'S REPUTATION - -II. RODIN'S STUDIO--HIS WORKS FROM 1880 TO 1889--"EVE"; SOME BUSTS; -THE MONUMENT TO VICTOR HUGO--"THE GATE OF HELL"--"THE DANAID"--THE -"THOUGHT"--THE EXHIBITION OF CLAUDE MONET AND RODIN, IN 1889--THE -MONUMENT TO CLAUDE LORRAINE AT NANCY (1892)--"THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS" -(1888-1895) - -III. RODIN'S WORK FROM 1895 TO 1898--SMALL GROUPS--THE STATUE OF -"BALZAC"--THE INCIDENT OF THE SOCIÉTÉ DES GENS DE LETTRES--THE -"TECHNIQUE" OF THE "BALZAC"--RODIN'S IDEAS UPON MODELLING AND -COMPOSITION--HIS OPINIONS ABOUT THE GREEKS, THE GOTHIC STYLE, -CLASSICISM, AND MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS--RODIN'S "ANTIQUE" PERIOD - -IV. WORKS SINCE THE "BALZAC"--SMALL WORKS IN MARBLE--PLAN OF THE -MONUMENT TO LABOUR--DRAWINGS AND ETCHINGS - -V. RODIN'S PRIVATE LIFE--HIS PERSON, STUDIO, AND HOME--HIS INFLUENCE; -SCULPTORS INSPIRED BY HIS IDEAS--RODIN'S PLACE IN THE FRENCH -SCHOOL--HIS PRESENT POSITION IN RESPECT TO ACADEMIC SCULPTURE - -VI. APPENDIX--CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF RODIN'S PRINCIPAL WORKS--LIST -OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS OR ARTICLES WRITTEN ABOUT HIM--QUOTATIONS -REFERRING TO HIM--AN OPINION OF EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE'S; AN OPINION OF -HENLEY'S--VARIOUS NOTES - -INDEX 141 - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - ETERNAL SPRING (photogravure) _Frontispiece_ - THE AGE OF BRASS - THE AGE OF BRASS - ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING - EVE - SKETCH FOR THE MONUMENT TO THE DEFENDERS OF THE NATION - UGOLINO AND HIS CHILDREN - BELLONA - BELLONA - VICTOR HUGO (dry-point) - VICTOR HUGO (dry-point) - BUST OF VICTOR HUGO - MONUMENT TO VICTOR HUGO (fragment) - VICTOR HUGO (fragment) - NEREIDS (group at base of the Victor Hugo monument) - SHADES (for the top of _The Gate of Hell_) - THE THINKER - DANAID - DANAID - THOUGHT - THE FAIR HELMET-MAKER - A NYMPH (bronze) - PUVIS DE CHAVANNES - JEAN PAUL LAURENS - BUST OF MADAME V. - THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS - A BURGHER OF CALAIS - A BURGHER OF CALAIS - A BURGHER OF CALAIS - BALZAC - BALZAC - PRIMITIVE MAN - YOUNG WOMAN BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL COUNSEL - IRIS - NUDE STUDY - AUGUSTE RODIN - CORNER OF RODIN'S STUDIO AT MEUDON - CORNER OF RODIN'S STUDIO AT MEUDON - STUDY IN BRONZE FOR THE "BALZAC" - NUDE FIGURE (photographed in the open air, at twilight, - in the garden in Meudon) - - - - -AUGUSTE RODIN - - - - -I - - -YOUTH AND EARLY WORK OF RODIN--HIS FIRST ATTEMPTS; HIS TIME AT -CARRIER'S--HIS STAY IN BRUSSELS AND WORK THERE--"THE AGE OF BRASS" AT -THE SALON OF 1877; THE INCIDENT ARISING IN REGARD TO IT--THE "ST. JOHN -THE BAPTIST"; BEGINNING OF RODIN'S REPUTATION - - -Auguste Rodin was born in Paris, in the Val de Grâce quarter, on the -14th of November, 1840, of a family of humble employés. The child -at first attended a day-school in the Rue Saint Jacques, then went -to a boarding-school at Beauvais, kept by his uncle. At fourteen he -returned to Paris and entered the school of art in the Rue de l'École -de Médecine. A period of desperate industry at once set in for him. - -In addition to the lessons of this little school, where from eight -to twelve young Rodin learned the elements of drawing, and later on -of modelling, copied drawings in crayons and reliefs in the Louis -XVI. style, he went twice a week to Barye's classes at the Jardin -des Plantes; "Barye," he says, "did not teach us much; he was always -worried and tired when he came, and always told us that it was very -good." But Rodin, together with Barye's son and some other lads, had -arranged a sort of studio for themselves in a cellar of the museum, -making seats of tree-trunks, and already attempting sculpture. At -six in the morning he used to go to draw animals, then he copied the -anatomical objects in the Museum. He remembers that, being too poor to -buy an anatomy of the horse, he copied it piece by piece. After Barye's -class, or the classes of the Rue de l'École de Médecine, he would lunch -on a bit of bread and some chocolate and hasten to the Louvre, and -in the evenings he would go to draw and study at the Gobelins. Then -he worked for a maker of ornaments, since it was necessary to earn a -living. From fourteen to seventeen years old Rodin led this fevered -existence. "In those three years," he has often repeated to me, "I came -to understand the meaning of a drawing from the life, the synthesis of -my art, and the rhythm of animals. I remember that a companion of those -days,[1] of whom I have since lost sight, made me see, in a couple -of hours, on a very true and simple principle, an observation of the -necessary equilibria of movement not taught in the schools, the secret -of the plans of a figure. That lesson has influenced my whole life. As -for the ornament-maker, in whose workshop I earned a scanty wage, I -long deplored being constrained to do so, but I have since thought with -affection of it, understanding that there are as many sources of beauty -in ornament as in the face." - -His work at the ornament-maker's allowed Rodin to earn his living as an -art-worker and as a strenuous and silent student; and he vegetated in -this manner until he attained his twenty-fourth year, never ceasing, -in spite of his poverty and of his daily labour, to work at sculpture. -Then he offered himself as an assistant and pupil at the studio of -Carrier-Belleuse. Carrier-Belleuse was then at the full height of his -reputation as an elegant sculptor, whose real gifts of spontaneous -invention were being rendered insipid by his desire to please. Rodin -remained six years at Carrier-Belleuse's, and worked there without -gaining much instruction. But he meditated and taught himself. From his -twenty-fourth year dates the head known as _The Man with the Broken -Nose_, which is a masterly work, strongly inspired by the antique, -and already foreshadowing all his future. This clay head, which the -young man sent to the Salon of 1864, was refused. From time to time -Rodin tried to compete for admission to the École des Beaux Arts; he -was thrice refused. This disgusted him with the usual career upon which -his lack of any income invited him to enter. His ideas, his independent -temper, his presentiments, and his love of an art personal to himself, -showed him that he would never gain anything, and never have the -academic discipline necessary to succeed. He took advantage of an -opportunity. Carrier-Belleuse had a commission at Brussels and did not -care to execute it; Rodin got permission from his master, who esteemed -him, to undertake it in his name, and, after having spent six years -in the fashionable sculptor's studio, he went to Brussels, where Rude -had already spent a considerable time. He was destined to remain there -until 1877, working with the Belgian sculptor, Van Rasbourg, at the -pediment of the Bourse, where his sign manual may still be seen, as it -may upon some caryatids of a house on the Boulevard d'Anspach and upon -some other works. - -Of this exile at Brussels we know that the artist retains only kindly -memories, but he is too sparing of personal details to enable us to -analyse with any certainty this part of the life of a tenacious, -concentrated man who, entirely occupied with his dreams, with -indefatigable study, the anxieties of poverty, and his lonely pride, -had no desire to be known. - -"I worked very hard over there," he says, to sum up the matter. It -is certain that Rodin was at this time already in possession of -that formidable will which led to his success, and also of that -disdainful obstinacy which prefers obscurity and lack of success to -any compromise. He speaks little or not at all of the drama that was -being worked out in him at this time, or of the way in which he refined -and cultivated his perceptions, nor of the painting lessons that he -took of Lecoq de Boisbaudron, in company of Alphonse Legros, who -became his intimate friend; but this influence of Lecoq de Boisbaudron -must not pass unnoted. It does great honour to that master teacher -who has formed so many eminent modern artists. His seven years' stay -at Brussels allowed Rodin to live modestly but decently, amid quiet -surroundings, to reflect, and to shape himself intellectually; it was a -sort of spiritual retreat that did him good, apart from the fact that -he gained a thorough knowledge of the Flemish Primitives and of the -Gothic masters who were so strongly to influence him. No biography, -however, could render comprehensible the way in which, for example, the -brain of a low-born and poor child was able, amid poverty and incessant -manual labour, to grow into the wide and deep brain of a thinker -familiar with the synthesis of art; these things are the secrets of -personality. - -[Illustration: THE AGE OF BRASS] - -Rodin was destined to emerge suddenly from obscurity at the age of -thirty-seven, that is to say, at a time of life when many men think -themselves hopelessly sacrificed, and when he had already produced -much and suffered much; for it may be said that the whole of his work -from 1855-75 is unknown and lost, and yet what labour it represents! -Except _The Man with the Broken Nose_, none of it is ever mentioned; -the pediment of the Bourse at Brussels is crumbling away, time is -devouring Rodin's work upon it no less than Van Rasbourg's; he will not -speak of the many figures that he made to the order of Carrier-Belleuse -and interpreted according to his own free inspiration; and he only -occasionally alludes to a large figure that was broken in a household -removal, and was, in his opinion, one of the best he ever made in his -life. In 1876 _The Man with the Broken Nose,_ in marble, was admitted -to the Salon. This determined Rodin in 1877 to send in his statue, _The -Age of Brass,_ and this gave rise to an incident, the very injustice of -which was to bring him into notice. - -The jury,[2] astonished by this work, admitted it, but accused the -artist of having taken a cast from life, so perfect was the modelling. -The practice of taking a cast from the life is unhappily frequent, -and we know he praised academicians who employ this artistic fraud -without any scruple. Rodin protested. He had had a Belgian soldier for -his model in Brussels: he had photographs taken of him and sent them -to the jury, who did not even open the packet, and persisted in the -allegations. Three sculptors, however, Desbois, Fagel, and Lefèvre, who -thenceforward became Rodin's friends, protested in his favour, some -critics spoke of the affair, and Rodin's work made so much impression -that the secretary of the Fine Arts, Turquet, bought _The Age of Brass_ -(which stood for a long time in the Luxembourg Gardens and is now in -the museum). - -Rodin waited until 1880 to exhibit _St. John the Baptist_. Meanwhile -Turquet had conceived a friendship for him and wished to wipe out the -unjust accusation brought against _The Age of Brass._ The inspectors -of the Fine Arts department disowned the purchase of that work and -declared it cast from life. Rodin, discouraged, remained silent; a -chance saved him. As he was continuing to look for work in order to -support his young wife and himself, and to defray the expenses of his -art, he chanced to be executing a group of children in a composition -for the sculptor Boucher. His facility was prodigious; Boucher saw -him improvise the group in a few hours and went, thunderstruck, to -tell some of his friends. He had the honesty to declare that such -a man, having done thus before his own eyes, was capable of making -_The Age of Brass._ Chapu, Thomas, Falguière, Delaplanche, Chaplin, -Carrier-Belleuse, and Paul Dubois insisted loyally, and Rodin's cause -was won. Turquet, delighted, and free to act, bought the _St. John the -Baptist_ and gave Rodin a commission. Then the artist answered: "I -am ready to fulfil it. But to prove surely that I do not take casts -from the life I will make little bas-reliefs--an immense work with -small figures, and I think of taking the subject from Dante." This -was the origin of that celebrated _Gate of Hell_, which is not yet -completed, and which, continually handled afresh, has finally become -the central motive of all Rodin's dreams, the storehouse of his ideas -and researches. - -[Illustration: THE AGE OF BRASS] - -From that time forward (1880) Rodin was what he is to-day; he had -emerged, once for all, from obscurity, and went on to display without -interruption and without hesitation the succession of works that have -rendered him celebrated. He knew his path, his method, his field of -thought. From the age of sixteen to that of forty he had, by unknown -persistent labour, been ripening his individuality. And his work, -from _The Age of Brass_ to the _Balzac_, is but a visible development -of that hidden period. The period from the _Balzac_ to our own day -testifies to a new theory that he has framed. But one may say that -the Rodin of the years from 1877 to 1897 was entirely contained in -the unknown man of the preceding period. It was, indeed, that slow -preparation that gave to the revelation of the works that appearance -of certainty, of sudden mastery, which so struck people's minds. We -are accustomed to see artists make youthful successes with works of -brilliant promise, then we follow their course and see them growing -greater. Rodin came to light in twenty-four hours. He was thought to -be a young beginner; his past struggle was unknown; people were aware -of him only when he had done with scruples and had, as he says, "made -peace with himself." From this fact came his prestige. From it came -also his well-defined attitude in regard to academic art. - -[Illustration: ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING] - -We need to recall the graceful, effeminate, and conventional statuary -of the generation from 1865 to 1875 in order to comprehend fully -what _The Age of Brass_ and _St. John the Baptist_ brought into the -exhibitions when they made their appearance there. Rough truth, a sense -of movement, an intense realism, an absolute scorn of the pleasing, a -lofty style, a deep feeling of organic life, power due to the eager -love of form, of muscular formation and physical activity; all these -things inevitably shocked the gentle sculptors who were enamoured of -the academic style and of mythology. Moreover, Rodin was unknown; -he had no claim, knew nobody, had never asked for anything, and was -a son of the people. That Carrier-Belleuse's former workman should -take upon himself to make statues all by himself aroused scorn. His -technical skill was so great that there could be no possibility of -denying it. Therefore, in spite, the accusation of casting from the -life was invented. The accusers did not reflect upon the splendid -testimonial that would be given to the artist if he should succeed in -proving that his skill alone had created this perfection. The amusing -thing is that the same people who declared this skill too great to be -anything but a reproduction, accused Rodin, twenty years later, over -his _Balzac_, of not knowing his craft! Apart from this question of -fact, and these professional jealousies, the style of these works could -not fail to displease. In them there was already a sort of symbolic -and savage beauty, which has become a characteristic of Rodin's art. -The pained, awakening movement of the man in _The Age of Brass_, the -gesture of _St. John the Baptist_, and still more his wild face with -its open mouth, were so much outside the usual conventions as to make -everybody feel that here was an artist resolved to take no account of -the "École" and its principles. These two splendid studies of the nude -already contained a very special thought. Rodin, therefore, was hated -in the first place as a man who would be revolutionary. He was hated -because he was powerful, because he emerged suddenly from obscurity, -and because he was felt to possess an obstinate individuality. It was -also for these very reasons that warm sympathies went out to Rodin -from among artists opposed to the spirit of the "École," and from -independent writers who divined in him a man capable of expressing in -his art thoughts and emotions that had ceased to be found in art. - -[Illustration: EVE.] - - -[1] This unknown student was called Constant Simon. Rodin remembers him -as a remarkable man. - -[2] The hanging committee of the Salon is called a "jury."--TRANS. - - - - -II - - -RODIN'S STUDIO--HIS WORKS FROM 1880 TO 1889--"EVE"; SOME BUSTS; -THE MONUMENT TO VICTOR HUGO--"THE GATE OF HELL"--"THE DANAID"--THE -"THOUGHT"--THE EXHIBITION OF CLAUDE MONET AND RODIN, IN 1889--THE -MONUMENT TO CLAUDE LORRAINE AT NANCY (1892)--"THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS" -(1888-1895) - - -Rodin's previous works, from 1881 to 1889, had been produced in modest -abodes in the Rue des Fourneaux and the Boulevard de Vaugirard, and -later, in a little studio, granted by the Government, at the Dépôt des -Marbres, in the Rue de l'Université, where a certain number of studios -are given to sculptors. From 1889 onwards the Government granted Rodin -two larger studios there, which he still occupies. At a later date -he also had, at his own expense, a studio in an odd corner of the -Boulevard d'Italie, at a place called the Clos Payen, besides a house -at Sèvres, and eventually one at Meudon, in which he still lives and of -which I shall speak again. Among these were distributed his studies -and his finished works: _The Gate of Hell_ was sketched in at the Rue -de l'Université, and there, too, Rodin's assistants are at work upon -his present groups. - -[Illustration: SKETCH FOR A COMPETITION. MONUMENT TO THE DEFENDERS OF -THE COUNTRY] - -From 1879 Rodin worked at Sèvres, having been introduced by -Carrier-Belleuse, and a vase decorated by him may be seen there. -In 1880 he made a fine competitive design for the _Monument to the -Defenders of the Nation,_ which was not accepted. In 1881 he made a -figure of _Adam_, which he destroyed, and an _Eve,_ which must be -reckoned among his noblest creations--an _Eve_ ashamed of her faults, -bowed down by terror, vaguely tormented less by remorse for her sin -than by the idea of having created beings for future sorrow. This -_Eve_ is a bronze of formidable appearance and all Rodin breathes in -it. As in the _St. John the Baptist,_ we feel the effect of a definite -conception of sculpture, but here the design is more spiritual and the -scheme of modelling simpler and larger. From that time onward we shall -find the artist producing regularly, putting forth a peaceful power, -and working in complete possession of himself, not free certainly -from doubts and searchings, but allowing nothing of the sort to be -seen. Rodin's way of working is very peculiar; he does not begin one -piece of work, carry it to its conclusion, and then devote himself to -another. He has had from the outset a certain number of thoughts that -correspond to forms, and although he has only shown his works one after -another, he has nevertheless elaborated them side by side, working at -them simultaneously and modifying them one by another. Thus _The Gate -of Hell_ has been made and remade for more than twenty years; thus -the monument to Hugo, not yet handed over, goes back, by the sketches -for it, to 1886; while the studies for _The Burghers of Calais_ date -from 1888, though the monument was only completed in 1895; thus, too, -among the little groups on which Rodin is still at work, are many that -have grown out of rough sketches made fifteen years ago. Rodin has a -store of ideas and emotions dear to him, upon which he has patiently -meditated, which he has promised himself to execute, and which he -brings to ripeness in silence, remaining throughout long years without -appearing to concern himself with them. "Strength and patience" might -be his characteristic motto. Like all great artists, he thought out -the essential lines of his work at once, lines that I shall define at -the end of this book. His is a synthetic and generalising mind, which -can only begin its active course after slow meditation, and conceives -no isolated thing; spontaneous and at the same time prudent. He had -that time of meditation at Brussels, not hastening to produce, not -permitting himself to express an idea until he had prepared in detail -the technical expression, the necessities of the craftsman. - -[Illustration: UGOLINO AND HIS CHILDREN] - -The _Ugolino_, a cast, of which Rodin exhibited the first sketch in -1882, is the first sign of that preoccupation with Dante, which was to -be shown in all his later work. He has read comparatively few things, -and that designedly; he attaches himself strongly to a few great and -profound works, and meditates upon them indefatigably. His whole -symbolic imagination has been fed by Dante and his whole sensuous -imagination by Baudelaire. These two gloomy poets have impressed him, -and it may be said that he has absorbed them. Almost all Rodin's great -symbolic figures refer to the _Inferno_, and all his little groups of -lovers have the neurotic subtlety, the refined, homesick melancholy -of the _Fleurs du Mal._ He has a constant need to evolve from realism -to general ideas, from thought to delight or sorrow, and the ideal of -Dante or of Baudelaire is strangely mingled in him with love of the -antique and worship of mythology. It is, indeed, this quite individual -fusion that forms the basis of his personality. The _Ugolino_, which -was exhibited, first alone and then with his dying children, over -whom he is crouching, haggard and already almost like a wild beast, -is a tragic and powerful work. The same year Rodin produced the bust -of Alphonse Legros, which has taken so high a place in England in -the opinion of the best judges, and in that of the lamented W. E. -Henley, whose penetrating criticism paid homage from the first to our -sculptor's art. - -[Illustration: BELLONA _Page_ 17] - -[Illustration: BELLONA] - -_The Genius of War,_ the _Monument to General Lynch_, and the very -curious _Bellona,_ date from 1883; the _President Vicunha_[1] and a -_Bust of a Young Woman_, from 1884. This was rather a period of groping -than of production; Rodin was continuing his studies, and becoming -more confirmed in his technical methods. We must go on to the year -1885 to reach the revelation of three of his finest sculptures--the -three busts of _Dalou_, _Victor Hugo,_ and _Antonin Proust_, which -powerfully declare his personality. These are works that are not -disputable, that cannot be accused of having a "literary" intention, -mere bits of sculpture giving evidence of mastery and showing surfaces, -planes, and high lights worthy of the very finest busts of the French -school. As time goes by, the ideas, the philosophy, the symbolism, -the "dramatisation" of Rodin's compositions may come to be disputed, -or exact comprehension of them may be lost; but works like these will -always, by their mere professional worth, bear witness for him. Life, -thought, strength, and character are carried as far as is possible. The -bust of Hugo was the outcome of some few studies that the artist was -able to make from the life. Hugo declared David of Angers to have made -so good a bust of him that he considered it unnecessary ever to sit -again. Rodin wished to obtain sittings, but failed; the poet admitted -him to his table, and merely said to him, "Come when you like, observe -me ... and do what you can." At table Rodin took sketches of Hugo in -cigarette-paper books; he had a stand and some clay in the ante-room, -and from time to time he would run in to note down anything that had -just struck him. - -VICTOR HUGO. (DRY POINT) - -VICTOR HUGO. (DRY-POINT) - -In this manner was that admirable bust completed, which (with the two -etchings here reproduced) was the only material of which Rodin could -make use for the Hugo with the bowed head of his future monument, the -commission for which was given him by the Government after the death of -the national poet in 1883, and which is on the eve of completion. - -The next year (1886) Rodin exhibited the scheme of the monument itself, -which has since undergone several variations, but of which the central -theme is always as follows: Hugo, naked and half-draped, like a god, -is seated on a rock at the edge of the sea. With his outstretched left -arm he makes a silencing gesture towards the sea and the Nereids, -and thus begs them to let him listen to the Muse of his Inner Voice, -who rises, pensively, behind him, and to the Muse of Anger, who, -crouched on a rock above his head, seems ready to fly up into the -sky. This Muse may also be interpreted as an Ins, the messenger of -the voices of the elements, and the Muse of the Inner Voice is also -called Meditation. She is of the greatest beauty; hers is one of the -figures in which, before the _Balzac_, Rodin indicates his new method -of amplifying the relief and systematically altering the proportions, -in order--according to an idea which I shall analyse in detail in -the next chapter--to secure a decorative effect. Nothing can be more -expressive and more supernatural than the harmonious sadness of this -great drooping shape; it is really a soul incarnated in a movement of -modesty and secret contemplation that disturbs and moves us as we gaze. -The Hugo himself is truly Olympian in the majesty of his gesture, the -vastness of his heroic nudity, and the magic of the shadow that bathes -his face bowed partly down over his breast; and the monument as a whole -is of magnificent decorative unity. There are to be two monuments -to Victor Hugo, one for the Pantheon, the other for the Luxembourg -Gardens, and they are to have slight variations, not in the attitude -of Hugo himself, but in the significance and style of the adjacent -figures. These two monuments, however, have not been accepted without -great difficulties caused by the very nature of Rodin's conception; and -the fact that they are accepted has not prevented the Place Victor Hugo -from being disfigured by a hideous and gigantic monument, the work of -Barrias, which fills the place of those that Rodin had not completed. -Rodin's slowness, which arises from the scrupulous circumspection -of his mind--never satisfied with itself--and from his habit of working -simultaneously at several subjects, has always contributed towards -driving away official commissions from him; while the jealousy of -his fellows and the exceptional character of his work have further -helped to bring about strained relations between him and the official -circle. Rodin does not care about pleasing or about being understood -by everybody, and he has no idea of concessions. Thus almost all his -important works have given rise to incidents likely to disturb his -peace and hinder his work. - -[Illustration: BUST OF VICTOR HUGO.] - -[Illustration: VICTOR HUGO MONUMENT. (A FRAGMENT)] - -[Illustration: VICTOR HUGO. (A FRAGMENT)] - -Together with the sketch of the Hugo monument, a bust of Henry Becque, -and a curious etching made from it, Rodin exhibited in 1886 the first -drawings belonging to _The Gate of Hell_, or at least to the work which -people have agreed to call by that title. I have already related the -origin of that Government commission. In the beginning Rodin had been -asked to make a door in high-relief, intended for the Musée des Arts -Décoratifs. But the sculptor's imagination, beset by ideas of Dante, -soon deviated from the original scheme. The door really exists in the -studio of the Rue de l'Université, under the aspect of a vast rough -model in plaster and beams, in the very simple shape of a two-leaved -door 19 ½ feet high, with a frieze, a tympanum, and two lateral -capitals. It was, at first, to have been surmounted by the two figures -of Adam and Eve, but Rodin gave them up. He now seems determined to -place the _Shades_, here reproduced, in the highest plane.[2] On the -uppermost beam _The Thinker_ is to be seated. In the panels of the -door and upon the wide uprights are enshrined figures--to the number -of over a hundred--detached in high-relief, exactly as upon the gates -of the Baptistery in Florence, which Rodin has, quite simply, taken -as his model. These figures were, at first, direct interpretations -from Dante, in particular Paolo and Francesca da Rimini and divers -inhabitants of the Inferno. Then Rodin intermingled figures due solely -to his inspirations from Baudelaire and to his own sharp perception -of tragic perversity. He enlarged Dante's conception as he modernised -it, and has ended by making this door into what he smilingly calls -"my Noah's Ark." That means that he is continually putting in little -figures which replace others; there, plastered into the niches left -by unfinished figures, he places everything that he improvises, -everything that seems to him to correspond in character and subject -with that vast confusion of human passions. The size of these figures -is greatly restricted; the largest scarcely exceed thirty-nine inches -in height. The dimensions of the final rendering, however, still remain -to be fixed. The splendid figure called _The Thinker_ is carried out -in bronze larger than life, and Rodin is credited with an intention of -bringing up all the other figures to the same dimensions, which would -represent an unheard-of outlay and a gate nearly a hundred feet high--a -Cyclopean work indeed! _The Thinker_, who has been so called on account -of the likeness between his attitude and that of Michael Angelo's -_Pensieroso_, is much more truly an image, with his stunted body and -a primitive man's face, of the cave-dweller, the prognathous savage -beholding the crimes and passions of his progeny unroll themselves -below him. Immediately beneath him may be seen the most celebrated -characters of the Dante cycle, notably the lovers of Rimini entwined -and falling into hell.[3] Then as we descend towards the ground the -figures become more independent of the subject, more personally -invented by the artist, and at the foot we find "women damned," such as -Baudelaire conceived, amid characters from heathen mythology. - -[Illustration: NEREIDS (Group at the base of the Victor Hugo monument.)] - -It may thus be said that, although, perhaps, the celebrated doorway -may never be finished, it is a storehouse of Rodin's creations. It -stands by him as a theme for inspirations, and he brings into it a -whole category of thoughts and works, never troubling himself about the -architecture or the actual scheme. He will be for ever improvising some -little figure, shaping the notation of some feeling, idea, or form, and -this he plants in his door, studies it against the other figures, then -takes it out again, and if need be, breaks it up and uses the fragments -for other attempts. Many of these little figures have developed into -important separate groups. Rodin is ruled primarily by the need to -create and to satisfy an irresistible vocation; he cares little what -may be the ultimate transformation of his inventions, and his sculpture -is, furthermore, so conceived that it may be executed on a large scale -or a small; this is indeed so much the case that it is often impossible -to judge from a photograph what are the dimensions. - - -[Illustration: SHADES (For the top of "The Gate of Hell".)] - -_The Gate of Hell_ might therefore better be called "the Pandemonium," -or some quite other name. If it were to be carried out it could not -contain all the figures destined for it by the artist. There they -stand, innumerable, ranged on shelves beside the rough model of the -door, representing the entire evolution of Rodin's inspiration, and -forming what I call, with his consent, "the diary of his life as a -sculptor." To enumerate these figures and groups would take too long; -suffice to say that the larger part of Rodin's small marbles and -bronzes are but completions of these sketches, and that on account of -the essentially decorative character of the outlines and the intense -originality of the proportion and balance of the figures, they can -be conceived either as statuettes or as lifesized works. Such as it -is, _The Gate of Hell_ is the plan of a piece of work unique in the -sculpture of modern days, a plan slowly elaborated, and of which every -detail has been foreseen and analysed for years. No one has dared to -undertake so audacious an assemblage of figures upon such a scheme, and -the scheme is present to Rodin in its entirety. He by no means forgets -the decorative effect nor the harmonious aspects, the concords that the -gate should have, and if ever Government should require him to deliver -his work he would be able to do so without delay. Twenty years in the -studio have matured it in his mind. The work that Dante inspired has -assumed a more general significance. Low-relief, high-relief, figures -standing free, groups, single figures, all the styles of sculpture are -gathered into the symphony of a throng, lost amid whirling mists of -hell and converging towards the figure of the Thinker. The conception -embraces centuries. Ugolino is there, and so are centaurs, female -fauns, satyrs, and creatures dreamed of by Baudelaire, abstract -personifications of vices--in particular, there is the extraordinary -group of the miser dying of hunger over his treasure beside a -prostitute _(Avarice and Lewdness)._ The Thinker, in his austere nudity -and pensive strength, is at one and the same time the alarmed Adam, -the implacable Dante, and the compassionate Virgil of this frightful -unrestrained humanity, but he is, above all, the ancestor, the first -man, simple and unconscious, looking down on what he has begotten. The -symbolism and philosophy of the artist are independent of any religious -doctrine; his spiritual ardour excels in setting free the symbols of -the various creeds, and he is supported mainly by deep and incessant -consultation of nature, and by his exceptional sense of expression -in movements. He attains the decorative harmony of his work not by -additions, but by systematic suppressions, as the Gothic artists and -those of the Renascence did. - -[Illustration: THE THINKER] - -_The Gate of Hell_ is the outcome of studies made by Rodin from the -Gothic sculptors, during his stay in Brussels. In this, and in _The -Burghers of Calais_, he resumes the deep influence that he there -underwent. As to the influence that the antique had upon him, that only -showed itself later, in his smaller works in marble, and especially -in the _Balzac_ and recent productions. The _Gate_ corresponds to the -period in which Rodin's great aim was to create, through intensity -of movement and originality of attitude and outline, a _new system -of the dramatic_ in his art, which the taste of the day had frozen -into a false "neo-Greek nobility," obtained by immobility, by inertia -of outline, and by a fear of seeing too living a movement break the -general harmony. To seek a fresh harmony in the very study of movement, -to create, side by side with _static_ art, a _dynamic_ art, such, in a -brief formula, was Rodin's idea. - -He was shortly to exhibit a work which was still more significant of -the thoughts with which he was busy. For, though I have spoken at once -of that famous _Gate,_ which is the _leit-motiv_ of Rodin's art, it -must be remembered that in 1886 nothing was known of it but drawings. -Only by degrees have groups and fragments of it been seen, and the -work itself has never left the studio in the Rue de l'Université. It -was _The Burghers of Calais_ which revealed most clearly to the public -Rodin's capabilities in the way of style and of composing a whole work, -and I will speak of the _Burghers_ in this chapter, although the work -was not completed until 1892 and was not set up in Calais until 1895. - -[Illustration: DANAID] - -[Illustration: DANAID] - -[Illustration: THOUGHT] - -In 1887 we may note _Perseus and the Gorgon_, and a marble _Head of -the beheaded St. John_, which belongs to the Marchioness of Carcano. -In 1888 was exhibited the exquisite _Danaid,_ one of the most tender -female figures that were ever lovingly moulded by this sculptor of -the energetic, and one which has a subtle delicacy of soul that seems -strangely placed between two works of power. At the same time a naked -figure was also shown at the Exposition des Beaux Arts, in Brussels--a -_Man Walking_, which was no other than one of the _Burghers,_ and -of which the robust execution made an impression. The year 1889 marked -an increase of the artist's activity. He was busy upon preparatory work -for the monument of Claude Lorraine, which he had been commissioned to -make for Nancy. He was going on with _The Gate of Hell._ He completed a -statue of Bastien-Lepage for the cemetery of Damvilliers. He began upon -the busts of the art critics, Octave Mirbeau and Roger Marx, finished -an admirable little _Dream-Group_ in marble, in which a young man is -lying back and trying to hold fast a sphinx-woman who takes flight, -wild and fateful. An impressionist sketch of _Hecuba_, crouching down -and shrieking, and _Thought_, in marble, completed the record of this -well-filled year. _Thought,_ a proud, sweet head rising from a block, -is one of Rodin's best known works and the very symbol of his art. -It occupies a place in the Museum of the Luxembourg, where it is in -company with _The Danaid,_ the _St. John, The Kiss,_ a masterly female -bust, and a bronze statuette. _The Fair Helmet-Maker,_ from Villon's -poem, is a work on a very small scale, but containing the depth and -strength of tragedy--the whole drama of a human body's ruin. - -[Illustration: THE FAIR HELMET-MAKER] - - -In 1889 Rodin and Claude Monet together held, in the George Petit -gallery, an exhibition which has remained famous and which united -our two greatest artists. Rodin sent to it the _Women Damned_, the -_Beheaded St. John_, some _Fauns_ and _Bacchantes_, _Bastien-Lepage,_ -in all some thirty works, among which was _The Burghers of Calais_, -shown complete for the first time. The sensation produced was immense. -Rodin now tasted unmistakable fame, and his reputation spread all over -the world. This fame, however, did not disarm the official circle, and -not until the last three or four years have the critics been unanimous -in their praise of the great French sculptor, whose every important -work has given occasion to a battle, because its beauty arose from -principles opposed to the whole system taught in the schools. - -The five following years were marked by various works which did not, -however, interfere with the threefold parallel continuation of the -_Victor Hugo, The Burghers of Calais,_ and _The Gate of Hell_, which -were exhibited in various states in the Salon. Rodin considers it his -duty, indeed, to submit to the public the phases of his work, rough -attempts, clay, marbles, or bronzes, before the final completion; and -understanding very well that his style is, or seems to be difficult, -he thus explains himself to the public in the exhibitions, and allows -people to follow the stages through which his thought passes. In -addition to these works may be noted, for the year 1890, the bust -of a young woman, in silver, _Brother and Sister_, bronze, and the -_Torso_ of St. John the Baptist. In 1891, _The Caryatid_, a marble -figure of a young woman with a stone upon her shoulder, the group of -_The Young Mother_ (first bronze and then marble), and _A Nymph._ In -1892, the busts of _Rochefort_ and of _Puvis de Chavannes,_ which, with -those of _Dalou, Jean Paul Laurens_, _Hugo_, and _Falguière,_ form -an incomparable series from Rodin's hand of portraits that surpass -all modern French sculpture, and are admirable alike in execution and -expression. The _Puvis de Chavannes_ is perhaps the finest; it is a -work that does not pall even beside Donatello himself. In 1892 the -_Burghers_ and the _Claude Lorraine_ were completed. The _Burghers_ -waited three years for their setting up, but the monument to Lorraine -was inaugurated immediately, thanks to the devoted efforts of that -great art-worker in glass, Émile Gallé, and of Roger Marx, who by -his writings and his incessant activity has had a most noble effect -upon modern French art. These two eminent men, both natives of Nancy, -enforced the acceptance of the work. The monument consists of a statue -of Lorraine, standing, palette in hand, his head raised eagerly towards -the east, and of a pedestal from which Apollo and his rearing horses -stand out in splendid high-relief. Thus did Rodin seek to pay homage -to the master-painter who adored movement in light, by acclaiming -both these in his turn. Fault has been found with the importance of -the pedestal in comparison with the statue, the objectors failing to -understand that this allegory of Apollo incarnated the very soul of -the great artist whose effigy towered over the whole work, and that -this whole could not be dissevered. The idea animating this composition -was criticised by the authorities. Here, once more, Rodin with his -symbolic vision, his tendency to bold simplifications of the general, -synthetic idea, was found disturbing. He was asked for the _sculptured -portrait_ of a man, and he preferred to give prominence to a symbol -that expressed the dream and the essential genius of that man, the -sun-painter--an idea which was logical, but which ran counter to -the received prejudice as to portrait statues. The propagandist -persistence of Gallé and Roger Marx, however, convinced the people of -Nancy, who are now very proud of their monument. The horses and the -Apollo are the most living, palpitating, and lyrical things that Rodin -has produced. - -[Illustration: PUVIS DE CHAVANNES] - -[Illustration: JEAN-PAUL LAURENS] - -In 1893 Rodin made the bust of Madame _Séverine,_ the medallion of -_César Franck,_ and several works in marble; _Galatea, The Death of -Adonis, The Education of Achilles,_ and _The Wave._ From 1894 date -the _Eternal Spring,_ one of his tenderest and purest works, besides -an _Orpheus and Eurydice,_ an _Adonis and Venus,_ and finally _Christ -and the Magdalen._ For, by degrees, he was returning to religious and -mythological subjects, after having expressed only general symbols -or pieces of pure realism; and I shall have to call attention at a -later point to the original manner in which Rodin was bold enough to -interpret these subjects which the academic classicism seemed to have -worn out and left insipid for ever. - -The year 1895 at last beheld the inauguration, on the 3rd of June, of -_The Burghers of Calais_ at Calais. To the same year belongs another -fine work in marble: _Illusion, the Daughter of Icarus,_ besides -a vigorous bronze, _The Crouching Man,_ a medallion of _Octave -Mirbeau,_ and--at this early date--some nude studies for the _Balzac,_ -for the _Balzac_ was studied minutely in the nude, a point of which -many people know nothing, before appearing draped in the famous -dressing-gown which was destined, in 1898, to arouse so much clamour. - -[Illustration: BUST OF MADAME V.] - -The _Burghers_ were set up, by subscription, in a square in Calais.[4] - -The monument is one in which Rodin has deliberately departed from -all the rules of official art. These require that the effect should -be pursued primarily by a compact grouping, the same thought being -translated by the same gesture from all the persons. Rodin, on the -contrary, desired to leave their full individuality to his six burghers -going in their shirts and with halters on their necks to surrender -themselves to King Edward, and he has isolated them on their one -base. These six men are walking, one behind the other, two by two, -half naked and miserable, with their emaciated faces--men besieged, -sacrificed. One devotion unites them in the name of their town's -salvation, but their characters and their thoughts remain distinct, -and in each may be read a different drama of the conscience. They -have not the factitious enthusiasm and the declamatory gesture with -which an ordinary sculptor would have thought well to furnish them; -they are simply citizens who have resolved to fulfil a fatal duty, -and are going to perform it without cowardice, but nevertheless were, -yesterday, trades-people and family-men with no pretensions to the -heroic. They bear with them their regrets, their inner heartbreak, and -are not thinking of striking an attitude in the eyes of history. They -are the unknown, obscure heroes of a fatality such as often arose in -their rough times; and of how many dead men, devoted like them, has -history forgotten the deeds and names! There is Eustace de St. Pierre, -with his shaven magistrate's face, stiff and controlled, carrying the -key of the town; behind him Andrieux d'Andres, with his hands clenched -over his sobbing face, turns back, this last time, towards the city. -Jean de Fiennes, with his rough beard and weak, old man's shoulders, is -listening to Jean d'Aire, who, younger than he, is murmuring words that -perhaps confide to him his horror of death, and entreat from the old -man encouragement in renunciation. But in front of all the others the -two brothers, Jacques and Pierre de Wissant, advance resolutely; and -one turns back to hasten his friends, while one exhorts them, pointing -with a restrained gesture towards heaven. - -[Illustration: THE BURGHERS OF CALAIS] - -The entire reality of these figures is no less striking than their -ideality, just as is the case in the beautiful creations of the -"Primitives." These are men whose absolutely real nakedness reveals -itself beneath the coarse sacks that clothe them, a nakedness not -harmonised into any style, but shown in all its veracity by an artist -who has chosen models suitable to his characters without any care to -arrange them or to give them that pretended _beauty_ which would be -merely a falsehood and an enfeeblement. These are six wretched men, -shivering with cold and anguish. The scene is as close as possible -to history, and the faces are real--ugly or ordinary. But an idea -transfigures them. The tragedy of their sacrifice gives them a strange -greatness, and they become fine because their soul is fine. We guess -the gradation of their reflections: none faces his fate just like -another, and the reason is that, though what they will is one, what -they leave is different for each, and everything in them speaks, from -their faces down to the least attitude of their limbs. Their expression -is sober; a heavy silence enwraps them; we follow them with our -eyes as the dwellers in Calais must have done from the heights of -their walls; and they are so grouped that from every point we see them -separately, presenting a distinct aspect, and yet the one base unites -and uplifts them. This is a marvel of psychological composition. - -Technical skill assists this composition; we find the power of the -_St. John_, but more simplification. Only the essential lines attract -the eye, the details are subsidiary to the whole. Admirable bits of -flesh modelling are only noticed after long examination; the substance -is scarcely thought of, so much is the mind held at first by the -intellectual drama, and this was what Rodin desired. These six beings, -side by side, are august in their sorrow, and they move us by means of -their simplicity and by the absence of any theatrical gesture. We feel -the bodies under the shirts, for Rodin made six complete models in the -nude before he threw upon them these rags of stuff and knotted ropes. -The feet are strongly attached to the earth; we guess that their limbs -are heavy, because, though their will bids them walk, every step leads -towards death. The impression is extraordinary and such as perhaps no -sculpture ever gave before. This is a reality of all time: the epic of -the sacrifice of the humble. As for the style, it recalls the Gothic -sculptors by the rugged power of the moulding, the asceticism of the -heads, and the strength of the knotty limbs. We are compelled to think -of the Flemish "primitives," and especially of those genial Burgundian -sculptors and image-makers of genius who produced the immortal figures -of Philippe Pot's tomb in the Louvre. There is the same desire for -expression in sculpture, which seeks beauty solely in intensity of -character, and finds style in the sincere study of reality--all -these things concurring towards the greater synthesis of the work's -general thought. Rodin there shows himself an essentially French and -northern artist, alien from all that the academies, hypnotised by the -Italianism of the second Renascence, have chosen to invent as dogmas -of beauty. _The Burghers of Calais_ is a work of the true French -classic tradition--of the national classicality which has nothing in -common with that classicality imported from Italy in 1550 by which our -indigenous artists have so long been oppressed, thanks to the "École -de Rome." Standing before such a creation we recognise this truth -sharply--this truth which is the secret of Rodin's genius and of -the enthusiasm that he aroused. Better than Rude, better than Barye, -better even than Carpeaux, has he found the way to free himself, and to -go back, by power of thought and mastery, to our true national lineage. - -[Illustration: A BURGHER OF CALAIS] - -[Illustration: A BURGHER OF CALAIS] - -[Illustration: A BURGHER OF CALAIS] - -The _Burghers_ ought, according to Rodin's idea, to be placed in front -of the old Hotel de Ville of Calais, facing the sea; and he wished -the group to be placed on a very high pedestal, so that the figures -should stand out against the open sky, or else, on the other hand, -almost on the level, so that everyone could walk round them, live with -them, almost elbow them. A bad site has been chosen and a pedestal of -moderate height and ordinary appearance. The _Burghers_ are very fine -all the same, and are certainly the most powerful piece of sculpture -of the epoch. I have promised to be sober in my praises of Rodin, but -I do not see why in speaking of such a work as this I should hide my -convictions. Those who have seen it cannot fail to consider it, as I -do, the work of a thinker and of an artist of genius. - - -[1] It Is curious to recollect that the very fine equestrian statue of -General Lynch and the monument to President Vicunha, sent to America -by Rodin, were never paid for, and that, owing to revolutions, they -actually disappeared, so that these works may be considered lost. Only -the spoiled rough models and some photographs remain. - -[2] These _Shades_ are a symbolic representation of men who are just -dead, and who are bending down with folded hands in misery and terror -gazing at the hellish crowd into which they are about to fall. - -[3] The final version of this group has been treated by Rodin -separately, and is known by the name of _The Kiss_. The marble group is -in the Museum of the Luxembourg. - -[4] A statue of Eustace de St. Pierre had been asked for. Rodin sent -the six effigies of burghers, and this gave rise to fresh difficulties -with the authorities. - - - - -III - - -RODIN'S WORK FROM 1895 TO 1898--SMALL GROUPS--THE STATUE OF "BALZAC" ---THE INCIDENT OF THE SOCIÉTÉ DES GENS DE LETTRES--THE "TECHNIQUE" -OF THE "BALZAC"--RODIN'S IDEAS UPON MODELLING AND COMPOSITION--HIS -OPINIONS ABOUT THE GREEKS, THE GOTHIC STYLE, CLASSICISM, AND -MYTHOLOGICAL SUBJECTS--RODIN'S "ANTIQUE" PERIOD. - - -The year 1896 was occupied by the continuation of work for the Hugo -monument. The _Muse of Anger_ and the _Muse of the Inna' Voice_ were -brought to their full completion. In addition to these Rodin made a -very fine head of _Minerva,_ in marble, with a silver helmet; a statue -of a _Conqueror_, holding a statue of _Victory;_ and two groups--_The -Poet and the Life of Contemplation_ (for M. Fenaille, the faithful -admirer, who was, at a later date, to publish his sketches) and _The -Eternal Idol,_ a marvel of inspiration. A young naked woman is in a -half-sitting posture, her head bent, her gaze lost in a dream. A man -kneeling before her, his arms behind him and his desire restrained, -puts his head gently forward and kisses the idol beneath the left -breast over the heart, with mute fervour, and with a mystic, amorous -concentration of his whole being. Rarely does sculpture allow of so -much pulsating life and so much psychological emotion united to plastic -perfection and originality of arrangement. - -From 1897 date the marble group of the _Women Bathing,_ the last -studies for the _Balzac,_ and the studies for the _Monument to -President Sarmiento_, a statue upon a pedestal in high-relief. Small -groups in marble and in bronze are a form of which Rodin is fond. He -has been led to devote himself largely to them on account of _The Gate -of Hell,_ the dimensions of which necessitated small figures. Moreover, -Rodin reserves this form of art for certain categories of works that -have a character of passion and intimacy. It should be possible to pass -easily round them, to lean over them, almost to touch them and move -them about; one should be able to live with them, as one cannot do with -large figures meant to be looked at from below. The happy form of the -small sculptured block, which the eighteenth century had employed to -so much advantage, allows this constant communion of the spectator and -the work of art. Rodin, who executes his bigger figures in so large a -style, reserves for these a style that is minute but never mannered. -The outlines remain large, so much so, indeed, that the work would -always bear an enlarged scale; but the modelling is wrought with an -almost caressing touch and with a strange love of form. Here the rough -sculptor, so Gothic in his austerity, fingers the marble with the care -and the delicacy of a lover; he reveals himself as a fervent adorer of -smooth, womanly flesh; he plays with the subtlest variations of light -upon the inflexion of marble surfaces, and the man who is reproached -with caring for nothing but "character" and with despising "beauty" -creates arms, necks, knees, and bosoms of exquisite perfection. His -favourite type of woman is the long, delicately made woman, with -a small bust, largely curved hips, and a face full of will, the -nervous, feline, voluptuous woman, of head rather than of heart, such -as Baudelaire and Rops have imagined. The characteristic feature of -Rodin's small groups is the seeking after new combinations of movement. -I have said already that his essential idea was the production of -_dynamic_ art; that is to say that, finding himself face to face -with an academic school that had grown inert owing to its care for -pseudo-harmony, he had determined to draw sculpture out of this blind -alley and to show, before all things, how the expression of movement -might lead to an entirely new conception of decorative outline. From -this endeavour arose those little groups of lovers in which the -attitudes are so infinitely varied, those curious presentments in -which the arms and legs are placed as freely as in a painting. But the -painting has the help of shadow, of backgrounds, and of values, which -allow the light to be concentrated on a single point and the rest to be -blurred. Rodin has attempted so to compose his most audacious movements -that, in walking round, a new aspect of them is constantly presented, -whereas ordinary sculpture, meant to be seen from a single point, does -not allow the spectator to pass behind it. This difficulty and this -main idea have led Rodin to treat modelling and composition in a way -upon which I shall dwell more fully later on, and to invent a style of -statuary which borrows some of the laws of painting. - -These thoughts had long been ripening in Rodin when at last he resolved -to apply them to his _Balzac_, which was really not his first attempt -in this direction, but the first that was seen in public. When this -statue appeared in the Salon of 1898, it created such a commotion that -for a week the public forgot, over it, the events of that vast serial -story, the Dreyfus affair. The clamour was extraordinary; some people -raged at what they considered a scandalous practical joke, others -warmly defended the new work. The Société des Gens de Lettres, already -irritated by Rodin's delays in finishing the statue, declared plainly -that it refused the _Balzac_, a decision which led to the resignation -of the committee. Rodin might have brought an action and won it, -for, strictly speaking, his agreement required the society to accept -the work such as he delivered it. He preferred to withdraw his work -without claiming its price or discussing the matter. Once again his art -encountered violent opposition from the official camp--but to struggle -is repugnant to his temper. Inflexible in his will as a producer, he is -timid and proud in his attitude towards contradictions. Opportunity, -moreover, offered him a roguish and witty revenge. Falguière was -commissioned to make a _Balzac._ This put Falguière in a very awkward -position; after all the fuss made about Rodin's statue, he must needs -produce something finer, or at the very least equally interesting. He -was certain of a bad reception at the hands of Rodin's admirers and he -was bound to please the others. Falguière only succeeded in producing a -mediocre work. The _Balzac_ that may be seen at the present time in the -Avenue de Friedland is nothing but a half-hearted imitation of Rodin's; -it is Rodin's _Balzac_ seated, and without character or interest. This -work appeared in 1900, at a time when opinion was already beginning -to recognise the injustice done to Rodin, and it pleased nobody. -Then Rodin, to show that the incident had in no way altered his -friendly relations with Falguière,[1] made an admirable bust of his -fellow-worker, which was as fine as the second _Balzac_ was poor, and -thus gave to Falguière and to the public, also, a silent and ironical -lesson. - -What, then, was this _Balzac_ which was so much detested, and about -which the most abusive and extraordinary things were written? Merely -the image of the great writer, draped in a dressing-gown, with empty, -hanging sleeves; he has risen in the night and is walking up and down, -disturbed and sleepless, pursuing an idea that has suddenly presented -itself. He is bent forward, his head thrown back, the eyes deep-set, -and the mouth contracted in a smile of challenge. The powerful -neck--the neck indeed of a bull--emerges from the open wrapper. Rodin -made use of various daguerreotypes, and especially of a celebrated -portrait of Balzac, that shows him in shirt-sleeves with one brace, -and folded arms. The enormous proportions of the head, the amazing -strength of the thorax, the monstrous and leonine character of the face -are all exact. "His was the countenance of an element," said Lamartine -of Balzac, "with a torso that was joined to the head by an enormous -neck, short legs, and short arms." These words absolutely justify the -statue. Rodin had made studies for it in the nude (there are some fine -clay models of the subject in his studio), then he clothed it with a -gown (or to be more exact, with a bath-wrap, for that is what Balzac's -famous monk's robe was), and proceeded to simplify the folds until -he had left only the two or three essential ones. The result thus -obtained, with the disproportion of body and legs, led Rodin to hide -the short, ugly, useless arms under the drapery, and the figure thus -assumed pretty much the appearance of a mummy, of a sort of monolith, -from which nothing stood out but the one point of interest, the savage -and magnificent animality of the head, with its darkened gaze and the -bitterly curved mouth, of which Rodin had made a separate small study -in bronze. A great heave of the shoulders throws the body slightly -backward, causing it to rest upon one leg, which is apparently bent, -while the other is moved forward to walk. - -[Illustration: BALZAC] - -The whole work gives the impression of a _menhir_, a pagan dedicatory -stone. Interest is concentrated solely upon the head. Rodin considered -that the representation of a celebrated figure offered no corporeal -interest. It is evident that a great error prevails on this subject. -The ancients have transmitted to us naked or draped statues. It must -be remembered that this homage was almost always paid to warriors, -athletes, or courtesans; to represent these at full length was to -express their fame. Their beautiful shape received fit homage. The gods -were conceived as incarnations of moral beauty in physical beauty. -But as time and morality have gradually brought us to honour men who -are great in thought, the bodily representation of them has strayed -into an extremely false path. Dress and physical exterior ceased to be -of plastic interest, but the manner of our homage remained the same. -Busts with pedestals commemorating in writing the deeds or the works -would have been the right form of celebration. But this, the only -intelligent form, appeared to our modern statue-maniac ages too scanty. -This heretical opinion has given birth to the gentlemen in frock-coats -who disfigure our present towns and are hoisted upon pedestals in our -public squares. To this absurd point have we come: in order to honour -the soul we reproduce its husk, the body, which is destined to the -nothingness of the grave, and we represent the shoes and coats as -exactly as the head. We attempt in our pious regard for the essence -of a thinker to represent that part of him which was transitory. The -result is photography in bronze, a wretched artistic contradiction. -Nevertheless, if we are to bow to custom and represent a man at full -length of whom the head is the only important fact, we must indeed -give him a body that is like reality; but the artist should try to -concentrate interest as much as possible on the face. So illogical -is this style in itself that the bodies and clothes are copied from -chance models; the head of the person to be glorified is stuck on to -them, and it is the merest bit of luck if it has been possible to shape -this head itself from actual evidence! For plenty of statues represent -individuals who never looked like them, and of whom no authentic -likeness exists, which is the height of absurdity and the very -burlesque of an honour.[2] - -[Illustration: BALZAC] - -In such cases an allegorical monument should be a matter of necessity; -yet we behold hundreds of such statues, all the same, and our prejudice -in favour of verisimilitude requires us to contemplate the embroidery -of their doublets or the trimming of their coats. - -Rodin, for his part, to whom such ideas, which degrade his art to the -lowest level, are revolting, believes that composition and expression -should be so arranged as to make the spectator forget the _plastique_ -of the body. In his busts he neglects the inevitable linen collar, -coat-collar, and necktie. The graceful dress of _Claude Lorraine_, the -shirt and rope of _The Burghers of Calais,_ had served his purpose -well, and in the statues of _General Lynch_ and _Bastien-Lepage_ he -had reduced the modern dress to large bronze reliefs without precise -details. Especially in the image of a thinker he seeks to annul the -costume. The Olympian character of Hugo allowed of the nude; for the -massive deformity of Balzac the dressing-gown was appropriate. The -majority of those who mocked did not even know that this careless -costume was habitual to the author, and that Rodin chose to surprise -him in his home and in the fever of work, instead of showing him in the -street with a hat and stick, as they would no doubt have expected. - -The _Balzac_, then, presents the aspect of a sheath of stone pushed out -by a few twisting folds, which give it the appearance from behind of -an upright sarcophagus. The size of the head, the abnormal largeness -of the chest and neck, which have aroused mockery, are historic. Apart -from these points, one honestly wonders what it is that can have -shocked people in this bold and sincere work. The face is admirable in -its pride, its strength of will, its haughty irony, and penetrating -power of thought. The modelling and the leading lines are masterly. -The rather ghostly look of the clay disappears in the bronze, as may -be seen from the little head in that material, of which the monument -was to be made. It is the freedom, the spontaneity, the life of the -statue, which, as in the case of the _Burghers,_ gave a shock to the -conventions of the official world and disturbed the ideas of the public -at large. - -It is true, nevertheless, and is generally admitted even by its most -active adversaries that this great figure possesses a strange haunting -power; when one had seen it in the Salon one could see nothing else -after it, and could not succeed in getting away from it. People -returned to it, in order to attack it, but they did return to it -inevitably. The same official sculptors who in 1877 had accused _The -Age of Brass_ of being cast from life because the figure was so exact -did not shrink from accusing this same Rodin, matured by twenty years -of work, of "not knowing the figure" and hiding his Balzac under a -robe out of weakness. Besides these reproaches, which were made in -bad faith, reproaches arose which exclaimed at Rodin's madness or -hypocritically regretted that a man of so much talent should have made -so great a mistake. But one thing which the _Bahac_ never encountered -was indifference; what was the spell which compelled everybody to -regard it as an irritating puzzle, as a challenge, as a work out of the -ordinary run? Plenty of hostile faces were to be seen, but many of -them showed a secret fear of being in the wrong, of misunderstanding a -fine thing, a work which was a forerunner. This same fear might have -been read as early as 1867 upon the faces of the detractors who stood -in a ring around Manet's first works. - -The spell lay in the extreme simplification, the reduction of the -elements to a powerful unity, according to a scheme with which Rodin -had made experiments in silence and which he now revealed. And at -this point I am led to a brief explanation of Rodin's ideas upon the -technical part of his art. - -At the time of the _Balzac's_ appearance I gave an account of the way -by which Rodin had been led to a new conception of sculpture. This was -in an article[3] that has been reproduced more or less everywhere, and -that Rodin has been good enough to consider as the emanation and direct -expression of his artistic wishes. I cannot enter into all the details. -The scale of this book would not allow of that, but the following are -the principal points of that evolution. - -Rodin's is above all a temperament inclined to the expression of -passionate and tragic character. Thence comes his constant study of -movement. As I said before, that study has led him to give unlooked-for -values to the general outline and to produce works which may be viewed -on all sides and which continually show a fresh and balanced aspect -that explains the other aspects: otherwise the daring gestures and the -bold combinations of the limbs would have given an air of absurdity -to the groups. Rodin is at the same time very reflective and very -instinctive. He matures a thought slowly, but he often passes by -chance from that thought to its realisation. This is the predominant -feature of his nature, and it explains his entire art. Rodin often -appears unconscious, astonished at what he had in him and at what he -has brought into existence, to such a degree that he explains it badly -enough. He sees his thought in the whole of nature and finds it there -again; that thought, indeed, is fed by general ideas, and is, if I may -say so, almost "elemental." From this point of view Rodin's _genius_ -is independent of his _talent_ as a sculptor. It sometimes happens to -him to see a block of marble or a knob of wood, and the form of such an -object will show him what he will make and the movement of the figure. -He adapts to it one of the ideas which he always has in reserve: the -aspect of the wood or the marble determines the passage of the thought -to the material which will incarnate it. I said one day to Rodin: "One -would say that you knew there was a figure in that block, and that you -do nothing beyond breaking away the stone that hides it from us." He -answered that that was exactly his feeling as he worked. Upon the naked -figure Rodin has ideas that are peculiar to his nature as a mystic and -a realist. He considers the body with its four limbs as a cypher, of -which the combinations are infinite. That is an old idea that was held -by primitive theologians of the Eastern religions. And it is the fact -that Rodin has invented an immense series of attitudes and combinations -that one would not have thought possible: he attaches little groups to -the side of a block of marble with the freedom of a painter throwing -a figure upon a background. He makes his people light, he makes them -soar, he entwines them in surprising positions. - -It was therefore absolutely essential that he should find means to -constitute a logical harmony _on every side_ of his works. Scholastic -statuary is opposed to this principle. Its tendency is to treat groups -as bas-reliefs. The spectator must stand in front, at a certain spot, -and whatever is behind is accessory: the decorative line produces its -effect only from that point. So true is this that statues are very -often so placed in public squares that people cannot pass round them. -The academic sculptors treat a piece of sculpture like a picture; it -has a right side and a wrong side. Rodin, shocked at this method, began -by working in quite a different way. He made successive sketches of all -the faces of his works, going constantly round them so as to obtain a -series of views connected in a ring. Travels in Italy had led him to -think that the ancients proceeded in this manner and that their great -endeavour was to get the design of the outline by means of movement, -which continually modifies the anatomy. Anatomy, indispensable to -the artist, becomes the source of all the academic errors if once -we forget that it is but inertia, the state of non-action, and -consequently incapable of expressly teaching us about life and about -the modifications that thought imposes upon flesh. The real value of -a living figure is given by profiles studied successively in a full -light. Rodin was delighted by this way of working. But his pictorial -inclinations, his ideas about the possible formation of a _background_ -in sculpture as in painting, were not satisfied. - -When the academic school wishes to make use of a background to a figure -it confines itself to a hollow or a relief. Rodin desired that a statue -should stand free and should bear looking at from any point, but he -desired nevertheless that it should remain in relation with light and -with the surrounding atmosphere. He was struck by the hard, cut-out -aspect of ordinary statues, and asked himself how an atmosphere might -be given to them. Painting has two means to this end: of which the -first is _values. Values_ are independent of colour. Values, an element -common to both arts, are in painting and sculpture _the relations as -to opacity or transparence of an object and the background against -which it is seen._ They may be dark on a light ground, light on a dark -ground, or light upon a ground that is likewise light; but they are -always the very life of the outline, and the important point is to fix -that outline first of all. When we see a person placed between the -sun and ourselves, against the light, we do not at first perceive the -details within the outline, but we do see the general mass of the body, -and that mass is filled with more or less intense colour, in which we -presently distinguish details. Our perception at the moment is as much -sculptural as pictorial. Rodin, struck by the importance of this idea, -devoted himself to obtaining, _at once and together,_ the _volume;_ -that is to say, the equivalent in sculpture of the _value,_ and the -design of _successive views of one movement._ - -But the second means in painting is the employment of intermediate -tones encircling the figure and combining with the background. How -could an equivalent be found for that? Logic led Rodin on to a step -which alarmed him: he made experiments after examining the antiques -very closely. He took fragments of his statues and began to raise them -in certain places by layers of clay, intensifying the modelling and -enlarging the lines. He observed that the light now played better upon -these enlarged lines; the refraction of light upon these amplified -surfaces was softer, the hardness of the cut-out outline vanished, -and a radiant zone shaped itself around his figures and united them -gradually with the atmosphere. In this way, therefore, by means of -this systematic accentuation of the outlines, an intermediate tone, _a -radiancy of the forms,_ was produced. - -Rodin understood at once that he had found his way to the deepest -secret of his art; that is to say, to the ideal limit where through its -hidden laws a plastic art touches the other arts in a negation of all -that is merely materialistic. The intermediate tones in painting, the -radiating surfaces in sculpture, are the same principle as the nervous -radiations noted in photographing a hand, where it may be seen that -the fingers are prolonged by emanations. Nothing is fixed, limited, -or finished in nature, and the radiating state is the only real one. -But this was a dangerous discovery for a sculptor, since people would -immediately exclaim upon the _deformation_ _of what was seen_, the -alteration of the fact, the falsification of anatomy. Therefore Rodin -proceeded in silence and with very great prudence. The point was not, -of course, _to enlarge_ _all surfaces equally_, for that would have -produced only an increase of scale. The thing was _to amplify_, with -tact, _certain parts of the modelling_, the edges of which were swept -by the light, so as to give a halo to the outline. At the same time, -Rodin experimented in a series of drawings made on purpose, forbidding -himself to give any detail, tracing only the outlines of bodies filled -in with one wash of water-colour that gave the _value._ I shall return -to these sketches. They cannot be understood without a knowledge of -their original purpose. - -This theory, to which Rodin approved of my giving the name of -_deliberate amplification of surfaces_, is simply the critical -principle of Greek sculpture, which has been entirely misunderstood -by the academic school. That school, which is supposed to honour the -Greeks, is really false to their spirit and their teaching. Moreover, -this principle, which belongs to all the primitive statuary that -was made for the open air, is to be found among the Egyptians and -the Assyrians. It calls in question the academic tradition whereby -_exactitude_ is confounded with _truth._ In reality it may be said -to be a profoundly classic principle which has been denied by the -academic school. Here, as in painting, classicism is opposed to the -academic. Hence it should be concluded that in reality Rodin is by -no means an _innovator_ opposing himself to a school that retains -classic traditions, but, speaking precisely, a classic, returning to -nature, replacing himself in the state of mind of a Greek before his -model, and opposing himself to a school that has overloaded art with -methods, formulas, and expedients that change the character of antique -and Gothic art. Rodin has a horror of what is called "originality," -and an even greater horror of what is called "inspiration." He only -trusts completely to work and to minute, sincere observation of nature. -"Slowness is a beauty," he often says. He has the greatest antipathy -for "sculpture with literary meanings," and has often been galled, -without saying so, by certain praises, in which writers, reeling off -pages of description about his works, have thought to please him by -dwelling on the idea and not on the execution. "I invent nothing," -he says; "I rediscover. And the thing seems new because people have -generally lost sight of the aim and the means of art; they take -that for an innovation which is nothing but a return to the laws of -the great sculpture of long ago. Obviously, I think; I like certain -symbols, I see things in a synthetic way, but it is nature that gives -me all that. I do not imitate the Greeks; I try to put myself in the -spiritual state of the men who have left us the antique statues. The -'École' copies their works; the thing that signifies is to _recover -their method._ I began by showing close studies from nature like _The -Age of Brass._ Afterwards I came to understand that art required a -little more largeness, a little exaggeration, and my whole aim, from -the time of the _Burghers_, was to find a method of exaggerating -logically: that method consists in the deliberate amplification of the -modelling. It consists also in the constant reduction of the figure to -a geometrical figure, and in the determination to sacrifice any part of -a figure to the synthesis of its aspect. See what the Gothic sculptors -did. Look at the cathedral of Chartres; one of the towers is massive -and without ornament: they sacrificed it to give value to the exquisite -delicacy of the other tower. - -"In sculpture the projection of the muscular _fasciculi_ must be -accentuated, the foreshortening forced, the hollows deepened; sculpture -is the art of the hole and the lump, not of clear, well-smoothed, -unmodelled figures. Ignorant people, when they see close-knitted true -surfaces, say that 'it is not finished.' No notion is falser than that -of _finish_ unless it be that of _elegance_; by means of these two -ideas people would kill our art. The way to obtain solidity and life is -by work carried out to the fullest, not in the direction of achievement -and of copying details, but in that of truth in the successive -schemes. The public, perverted by academic prejudices, confounds art -with neatness. The simplicity of the 'École' is a painted cardboard -ideal. A cast from life is a copy, the exactest possible copy, and -yet it has neither motion nor eloquence. Art intervenes to exaggerate -certain surfaces, and also to fine down others. In sculpture everything -depends upon the way in which the modelling is carried out with a -constant thought of the main line of the scheme, upon the rendering of -the hollows, of the projections and of their connections; thus it is -that one may get fine lights, and especially fine shadows that are not -opaque. Everything should be emphasised according to the accent that -it is desired to render, and the degree of amplification is personal, -according to the tact and the temperament of each sculptor; and for -this reason there is no transmissible process, no studio recipe, but -only a true law. I see it in the antique and in Michael Angelo. To work -by the profiles, in depth not by surfaces, always thinking of the few -geometrical forms from which all nature proceeds, and to make these -eternal forms perceptible in the individual case of the object studied, -that is my criterion. That is not idealism, it is a part of the -handicraft. My ideas have nothing to do with it but for that method; my -Danaids and my Dante figures would be weak, bad things. From the large -design that I get your mind deduces ideas." - -Rodin, then, is convinced that he is classical, and rebels against the -"École" which claims to be so. He has the greatest admiration for the -Renascence, but declares that he does not so clearly understand the -genius of the Gothic sculptors. He admires it, but has not thoroughly -penetrated it. "I feel it, but I cannot express it," he says. "I cannot -analyse the Celtic genius to my own satisfaction. In the Middle Ages -art came from groups, not from individuals. It was anonymous; the -sculptors of cathedrals no more put their names to their works than -our workmen put theirs on the pavement that they lay. Ah! what an -admirable scorn of notoriety! The signature is what destroys us. We do -portraits, but what we do is not so great. These kings and queens, on -the cathedrals, were not portraits. The fellow-workers stood for one -another, and they interpreted; they did not copy. They made clothed -figures; the nude and portraiture only date from the Renascence. And -then those fellows cut with the tool's end into the block, that is why -they were called sculptors. As for us, we are modellers. And what a -disgraceful thing that casting from life is, which so many well-known -sculptors do not blush to use! It is a mere swindling in art. Art was -a vital function to the image-makers of the thirteenth century; they -would have laughed at the idea of signing what they did, and never -dreamed of honours and titles. When once their work was finished, -they said no more about it, or else they talked among themselves. -How curious it would have been to hear them, to be present at their -gatherings, where they must have discussed in amusing phrases, and with -simple, deep ideas!... Whenever the cathedrals disappear civilisation -will go down one step. And even now we no longer understand them, we -no longer know how to read their silent language. _We need to make -excavations not in the earth, but towards heaven._..." An admirable -saying that Rodin has often repeated to me and that I have never heard -without deep emotion! He has the secret of these true formulas, and -his words, which are not eloquent, but, rather, obscure, are suddenly -lighted up by them. His speech, like his sculpture, is born from -sincere contact with the essence of nature. In regard to the Renascence -and Michael Angelo, he reports that he received no decisive lesson -from either until after a journey to Italy in 1875. "I believed before -that," he says, "that movement was the whole secret of this art, and -I put my models into positions like those of Michael Angelo. But -as I went on observing the free attitudes of my models I perceived -that they possessed these _naturally_, and that Michael Angelo had -not preconceived them, but merely transcribed them according to the -personal inspiration of human beings moved by the need of action. I -went to Rome to look for what may be found everywhere: _the latent -heroic in every natural movement._ [4] - -"Then I gathered the elements of what people call my symbolism. I do -not understand anything about long words and theories. But I am willing -to be a symbolist, if that defines the ideas that Michael Angelo gave -me, namely that the essence of sculpture is the modelling, the general -scheme which alone enables us to render the intensity, the supple -variety of movement and character. If we can imagine the thought of -God in creating the world, He thought first of the construction, which -is the sole principle of nature, of living things and perhaps of the -planets. Michael Angelo seems to me rather to derive from Donatello -than from the ancients; Raphael proceeds from them. He understood that -an architecture can be built up with the human body, and that, in -order to possess volume and harmony, a statue or a group ought to be -contained in a cube, a pyramid; or some simple figure. Let us look at a -Dutch interior and at an interior painted by an artist of the present -day. The latter no longer touches us, because it does not possess the -qualities of depth and volume, the science of distances. The artist who -paints it does not know how to reproduce a cube. An interior by Van -der Meer is a cubic painting. The atmosphere is in it and the exact -volume of the objects; the place of these objects has been respected, -the modern painter places them, arranges them as models. The Dutchmen -did not touch them, but set themselves to render the distances that -separated them, that is, the depth. And then, if I go so far as to say -that _cubic truth, not appearance, is the mistress of things,_ if I -add that the sight of the plains and woods and country views gives me -the principle of the plans that I employ on my statues, that I feel -cubic truth everywhere, and that plan and volume appear to me as laws -of all life and all beauty, will it be said that I am a symbolist, that -I generalise, that I am a metaphysician? It seems to me that I have -remained a sculptor and a realist. Unity oppresses and haunts me." - -"What," says Rodin again, "is the principle of my figures, and -what is it that people like in them? It is the very pivot of art, -it is balance; that is to say, the oppositions of volume produced -by movement. That is the striking, material fact in art, with all -due deference to those persons who conceive art as distinct from -'brutal' reality. Art is like love. For many people it is a dream, a -psychological complication, a palace, a perfume, a stage scene; but -nothing of the sort! The essential of love is the pairing; all the -rest is only detail, charming, and full of passion, but detail. It is -the same in art: people come and praise my symbols and my expressions -to me; but I know that the plans are the essential thing. Respect the -plan, make it exact from every point; movement intervenes, displaces -these volumes and creates a fresh balance. The human body is like a -_walking temple,_ and like a temple it has a central point around which -the volumes place and spread themselves. When one understands that, -one has everything. It is simple, but it must be seen, and academism -refuses to see it. Instead of recognising that that is the key to my -method they prefer to say that I am a poet. That expression signifies -that people feel, confusedly, the difference between an art resting -on conventions and one derived from truth; only they think that the -'poetic' art is the conventional one. They call that _inspiration._ -That is the belief that has led to the theory of genius being madness. -But men of genius are just those _who, by their trade-skill, carry the -essential thing to perfection._ People say that my sculpture _is that -of an 'exalté.'[5]_ - -"I do not deny that there is exaltation in my works; but that -exaltation existed not in me, but in nature, in movement. The divine -work is naturally exalted. As for me, all I do is to be true; my -temperament is not 'exalted'; it is patient. I am not a dreamer, -but a mathematician; and if my sculpture is good it is because it is -geometrical." - -From these fragments of conversation the reader will conceive how -Rodin's generalising spirit leads him from the realism of his daily -work to the synthesis of a sort of ideo-realistic metaphysical system. -He has the sense (belonging only to genius) of the _continuity of -the universe_, and he certainly had it at a time when, unlettered -as he was, he would not have known how to explain it specifically -to himself. He constantly formulates this metaphysical system, as I -have seen it formulated by Stéphane Mallarmé, who could never see -anything without instantly bringing together two ideas or images that -no one would ever have thought of connecting. Spontaneous analogy -is the mark of genius and the secret of all real poetry. This is -why I consider Rodin as a very great poet--not in the sense that he -dislikes, but on the contrary, by giving to the word "poet" its deep -etymological significance according to the Greek, that of "making, -creating, vivifying." We may understand, too, in how great a degree an -intellectuality of this kind offers a living challenge to the ideas -of the "École." The man who thinks thus is necessarily isolated and -has struggled all his life, never making a concession and saying -nobly, "The artist, like the woman, has an honour to preserve." I will -further quote from Rodin the following reflection[6]: "Where you follow -nature, you get everything. When I have a beautiful woman's body for -a model the drawings that I make from it give me images of insects, -birds, and fishes. That seems improbable, and I had no suspicion of -it myself. Formerly I used to be seeking shapes for vases, either to -use them at Sèvres, where I used to work, or elsewhere.... I never -succeeding in finding a beauty of proportions and lines such as I had -the feeling of, because I only founded my attempts upon _imagination._ -Since that time I have drawn women's bodies, and one of these bodies -gave me, in the synthesis of it, a magnificent shape for a vase, with -true and harmonious lines. The point is not to create. Creation and -improvisation are useless words. Genius only comes to the man who -understands with his eye and his brain. Everything is in the things -about us. Manufacture and ornamental art want reforming according to -these ideas. I should have liked to see that. Everything-is contained -in nature. There is an harmonious, continual, uninterrupted movement. A -woman, a mountain, a horse, in conception they are all the same thing, -they are made on the same principles. Young artists compose instead of -following their models and understanding that therein lies infinity." -Here Rodin directly touches a scientific truth--the relative monotony -of Nature's productive forms. Nature does everything with very few -forms: the variations are so infinite that there are no two leaves -alike, but the nerves of a leaf, the lines of a vein, an artery, a -bird's wing, a fishbone, a nerve-cell, are identical; multiplicity -derives from identity and returns to it, so that everything is reduced -to a fundamental geometry which perhaps is but the effect of a single -cellular generation. In this respect the laws of art and of science -are the same, even as among all the arts there is a synthesis of -common laws, an identity where we seem to behold a difference. Recent -work in science, by establishing the existence of states of radiation -(Crookes, Röntgen, Hertz) is busy undermining our old conception of -matter, showing us the identity of it with the immaterial, and thereby -abolishing our preconceptions about the idea and the fact, music and -sculpture, considered as different manifestations. I remember that I -one day kept Rodin's curiosity excited for a long time by explaining -the details of this theory to him; he was not acquainted with it, -and listened to me as to a writer in love with general ideas. But it -was clear that in his mere province as a sculptor he knew far better -and had penetrated far more deeply into this enthralling problem of -identity. His is a luminous mind, of the same kind as the electric -rays; it rather penetrates than surrounds what is obscure to it. On -that day he was disturbed, and I was irritated by certain declamations -which had been written about his "philosophy," and of which the author -had assuredly not comprehended the logical consequences; and we came -to the conclusion that it would be much better for Rodin's peace of -mind to keep silent upon these points, for his "philosophy" could only -be made comprehensible to those who could understand the method of his -sculpture. - -It is time, however, to pause in this path and to return simply to -the question of sculpture. Nor was it my purpose to tire the reader -by these abstractions when I began to say a few words about Rodin's -opinions concerning the antique. It must be understood, then, that the -_Balzac_ and even the _Hugo_, as well as some figures, were the result -of all these preceding reflections. "When I saw my _Balzac_ brought -into the yard from the storehouse of the statues in order to go to -the Salon," says Rodin, "I had it purposely placed beside _The Kiss,_ -which had been finished rather earlier. I was not dissatisfied with the -simplified vigour of that group, to which I had already applied these -experiments. But I saw that it looked slack, that it did not hold its -place beside the _Balzac_ as Michael Angelo's torso does beside a fine -antique, and then I understood that I was in the right path. I have -had hesitations, you know, pangs that I do not speak of. And then, -little by little, as I looked at nature, as I came to understand it -better and to throw aside my prejudices more frankly, I took courage. -It seemed to me that I was doing better. When I began I did skilful -things, things that were smartly done, but they were thin and dry, but -I felt there was something beyond, and that something is amplification. -I only ventured on it when I was over fifty years old, but do you not -think I have a right now to disregard the objections of the mob and the -newspapers? I have taken time to know why I was doing as I did. The -essential things of my modelling are there, and they would be there -in less degree if I 'finished' more. As to polishing or repolishing a -toe or a curl, I find no interest in it; it impairs the large line, -the soul of what I desired to do, and I have nothing more to say to -the public on that point. There the line of demarcation comes between -the confidence that the public ought to have in me and the concessions -that I ought not to make to the public." To this firm and discreet -resolution Rodin has kept in all the works wrought out by him since -1898. - -[Illustration: PRIMITIVE MAN.] - -I cannot better set forth his opinions about the antique than by -quoting the following fragments from two articles that he wrote for -the _Musée_, a review of ancient art, in January and February, 1904; -for Rodin sometimes writes, quite unpretentiously, but with the same -lucidity of thought that he shows in his familiar conversation. One of -these articles refers to a Greek statuette in the Museum of Naples, the -other to the lesson that the ancients give us. - -"In the first place, the Antique is Life itself. Nothing is more alive, -and no style in the world has rendered life as it has. The ancients -were the greatest, most serious, and most admirable observers of nature -who have ever existed. The antique was able to render life because -the ancients saw the essential thing in it--large blocks. They confined -themselves to the large shadows cast by these large blocks, and as -truth itself lies in that, their figures being so made could never be -feeble. Moreover, the antique is simple, and that gives it astonishing -energy. And then there is much more study in it than appears; that -was brought home to me once. When I had finished my _Age of Brass_, I -went to Italy and I found an Apollo whose leg was in exactly the same -position as one in _The Age of Brass_ that had taken me six months' -work. Then I saw that though on the surface everything seems to be done -at a stroke, in reality all the muscles are built up and one sees the -details come to light one by one. That is because the ancients studied -everything in its successive profiles, because in any figure and every -part of a figure no profile is like another; when each has been studied -separately the whole appears simple and alive. - -"The great error of the neo-Greek school is really this: it is not -_type_ that is antique, but modelling. For want of having understood -that, the neo-Greek school has produced nothing but papier-mâché. It -is bad to put the antique before beginners; one should end, not begin -with it. If you wanted to teach someone to eat, you would give him -fresh food, that he might learn to chew; it would never occur to you -to give him food already triturated to exercise his teeth upon. Well, -when you want to teach sculpture to anyone, set him face to face with -nature, and when he has gained plenty of power to deal with nature, -then say to him: 'Now, here is what the antique has done.' And that -will give him a new source of energy. Whereas if you give the antique -to the beginner who has never struggled with nature, he does not -understand anything about it, and loses his individuality over it. -You make a plagiarist of him, and instead of making his own prayer to -nature he will repeat the prayer of the antique without understanding -the words of it. He will die an old pupil; he will not die a man. - -"To teach the antique at the outset of a man's studies is to render -the antique incomprehensible. In the first place, no one can teach the -antique, it is not possible; that art of truth and simplicity cannot -be taught. The sculptor works from nature, and afterwards he goes to -look, in the galleries, and see how the antique rendered what he has -been trying for from the life. But if he goes straight to the antique, -shutting his eyes to nature, as the antique has always been done from -nature, our sculptor will only be able to carry that vision into his -own work in a factitious way; he will be neither antique nor modern, -but bad. - -"A man may do antique work in our day, not in the false sense of -producing the _antique type,_ but in the true sense of _modelling -like the antique._ Such a man (painter, etcher, or sculptor) will -take nature, and if he has the power of the antique he will produce -antique work, which will entirely disagree with what is taught as -such, but will agree with that in the museums. The 'École' begins -at the end; when a man begins with nature, he may go on to the most -improbable inventions; the antiques themselves show that. Do you know -of anything more impossible than the centaur? But is there anything -finer in Olympia? The ancients knew nature so well that they became her -fellow-workers and created, not phantoms, but beings that were alive in -spite of physical impossibilities. To my mind it would be better not -to study the antique than to study it wrong. It is not the artist's -alphabet, but the reward of his work. The command which it gives us is -not to copy it, but to do like it. - -[Illustration: YOUNG WOMAN BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL COUNCIL.] - -"To say that the antiques, which portray the plain marvel of life, -are beautiful is a superficial sort of praise. Beauty is not the -starting-point, but the point of arrival; a thing can only be beautiful -if it is true. Truth itself is only a complete harmony, and harmony -is finally only a bundle of utilities. The miracle of life could not -be perpetuated but for the constant renewal of universal balance. The -ancients felt that vast rhythm, and their art, being modelled upon it, -appears to us as a natural and sublime expression of beauty.... One -of the ancients made a statue. How did he set about it? It is useless -to bring in rules that only grew up in the brains of commentators -dissecting a series of works, centuries afterwards. The antique remains -uncomprehended because we have not a simple enough spirit. It is not -by studying the antique that we shall learn its secret; in order to -understand, not its nomenclature, but its spirit, we must begin by -studying nature. Rembrandt cannot be understood by copying him at the -Louvre, he can only be understood when we travel through nature to him. -Well, nature is always there, waiting patiently for antiques to be -made afresh; the model is there waiting for someone to come at last, -no matter whence. For it is an error to think the antique comes from -the south: it comes from everywhere. The antique can be produced from a -Dutch woman or an American woman; the type is nothing, the modelling is -everything. - -"What makes the strength of the antique is the plan, the connection of -all the profiles. The neo-Greeks say: 'The antiques are _line,_ and -their works, in which all the lines, except two, dance about, show -their error. The antiques, we will say, are _lines_ or rather _plan._ -Look at an antique; you can guess the full face from the profile. -The eye cannot grasp the shape on the opposite side to that which it -beholds, but it deduces it from this side: walk round, and the study -of the profiles will afford you an _irrefragable_ proof by _rule of -three._ The sculptor swells the half-tones by slight exaggerations, so -as to heighten the light by a tone. The drapery lives; like the body -that it hides, it receives life from that body without needing the -subterfuge of wetted drapery.'[7] - -"There is in the antiques an astonishing mystery of life which causes -all idea of dimension to disappear. A figure an inch or two high -might just as well be life-size; when a thing is well organised, the -greatness is in the modelling and not in the size. If one were to -photograph a Tanagra figure and the Eiffel Tower, and were to show the -two photographs to some person unacquainted with either object, I am -sure he would declare the Tanagra figure to be larger than the tower. A -pear or an apple, from the point of view of modelling, is as large as -the celestial sphere. Thus the splendour of truth is such that finding -no word to render it, we have called it 'Ideal.'" - -These quotations will suffice, I hope, to show Rodin's inmost thought. -These judgments are implicit condemnations of the "École"; they are -also definitions of his classical art, which is by no means "literary," -and which is governed, even in its lyrical and tragic developments, -by good sense, that is to say, by an inborn taste for balance in the -midst of boldness. If I am anxious to insist so strongly upon Rodin's -profound _normality_, this is, I repeat, in order to forewarn the -public against the declamations of some of his untoward admirers, who -reckon one of his merits to be an "originality" which they confound -with that exaggeration, that emphasis and eccentricity that never mark -the great artist. Whatever tragic or passionate subject a great artist -may treat, to whatever height of strangeness his imagination may rise, -beauty of form will, if he is, like Rodin, a master of _technique_, -confer upon _t_ him an exalted and permanent serenity. Rembrandt and -Delacroix come from the depth of their vastly differing worlds to meet -Raphael and Watteau in that conciliatory region where we admire the -great masters--and Rodin is already placed in that region. - - -[1] Rodin has never forgotten Falguière's loyalty at the time of _The -Age of Brass_ affair. - -[2] A recent example in Paris is the double statue of the chemists -who invented quinine. When will people understand that a discovery -of this kind, however honourable, is nevertheless quite incapable of -being associated with any plastic idea? The same thing is true of the -statues of Chappe and Lavoisier, flanked by instruments of telegraphy -and chemistry. These are ridiculous signboards, melancholy compliments -translated by a tradesman's art that renders our streets hideous. - -[3] _Revue des Revues_ (of Paris), June 15th, 1898. - -[4] I find myself underlining-: it is not Rodin whose voice makes this -emphasis. But I am attempting to mark out in this way the formulas -which spring up in his conversation, and which, collected together, -will give the public an idea of his instinctive synthesis, deduced from -life. - -[5] The word _exalté_ has in this use no precise equivalent in English. -"Enthusiast," as the eighteenth century knew the word--that is, with -the infusion of a touch of lunacy--conies perhaps nearest.--TRANS. - -[6] An observation noted by Mlle. Judith Cladel in her curious volume, -_Rodin, drawn from life._ (Éditions de La Plume, 1903.) - -[7] Loïe Fuller has obtained, by means of stuffs not wetted, the -effects that the 'École' loves, because her plastic dance is logically -derived from nature. - - - - -IV - - -WORKS SINCE THE "BALZAC"--SMALL WORKS IN MARBLE--PLAN OF THE MONUMENT -TO LABOUR--DRAWINGS AND ETCHINGS - - -"I shun father and mother and wife and brother, when my genius calls -me. I would write on the lintels of the door-post, _Whim._ I hope it -is somewhat better than whim at last, but we cannot spend the day in -explanation.... Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist ... must -not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must inquire if it be -goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of our own mind. -Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world." - -I quoted these high-minded words of Emerson's to Rodin at the time of -the _Balzac_ incident. "They are," I said to him, "the very epigraph -of your whole life." Nor have they ceased to epitomise the man and -the artist. From the time of the _Balzac_ Rodin's work has proceeded -very regularly and on the same principles. The _Victor Hugo_ is being -finished in marble, in its two versions, in the studio of the Rue de -l'Université. The group in which Hugo, his extended arm commanding -silence of the waves, sits surrounded by Muses is almost ready; the -other, in which Hugo, dreamily listening to the counsels of Iris, -stands on the edge of a rock washed by waves, amid which Nereids are -entwined, is not quite so far advanced. _The Gate of Hell_ is ready -to receive its finally chosen and ordered figures. In the Salon of -1902 Rodin exhibited the three _Shades_ from its summit, inspired by -the celebrated _Lasciate ogni speransa._ In 1900 Rodin only showed -two or three old productions at the Universal Exhibition, because his -work was collected in a special pavilion at the Rond-point de l'Alma, -the concession of which pavilion was made uncomfortable for him by -his colleagues, so much so that the artist was obliged to remove on -the very day of closing, with less delay and consideration allowed to -him than to the most unimportant industrial exhibitor. This special -exhibition was, nevertheless, a great international success for Rodin, -and the amazing development of his fame may be said to date from it. -Before 1900 Rodin stood in the position of an exceptional artist, -celebrated but envied, isolated and challenged, whose relations with -the Government were strained, whom a minority upheld, but on whom the -official world looked coldly. Since that time his eminence is so firmly -established that he now holds the rank that Puvis de Chavannes held -in the estimation of all artists. His triumphant journey to Prague -(1901-2), London's enthusiastic reception, and Rodin's recent election -to be President of the Society over which Whistler presided, have -finally given him the acknowledgment so long looked for. In 1903 his -marble bust of Hugo aroused enthusiasm, and at the Salon of 1904 the -colossal bronze _Thinker_ had a most flattering reception, and disarmed -the last of his former detractors. - -A woman's bust accompanied _The Thinker_ to the Salon. Rodin, who does -portraits now and again, had previously made an admirable one of Mme. -Fenaille, wife of the art-patron who had been of such great service -to him; and he is attempting a curious variation of it. He has just -finished a bust of a helmeted Minerva, as impressive as a Donatello, -and this, too, is a portrait. - -Various works have been produced by Rodin since the _Balzac,_ in -addition to the _Monument of President Sarmiento,_ which shows an -admirable bas-relief of a radiant Apollo. These works are nearly all -in marble, and small. It is almost impossible to describe and classify -them; a much larger book would be required, and my main purpose here -has been to give a general idea of Rodin's art and an explanation -of principles. I have spoken about some of his poems of the flesh, -especially that _Eternal Idol_, which will be the glory of thought -in modern sculpture. Rodin's recent works in marble have the same -inspiration. Some demand special notice: _The Hand of God,_ a gigantic -hand, between the fingers of which, and amid a handful of clay, two -beings are tenderly embracing; _Icarus,_ falling from the sky to be -crushed on the earth amid his whirling wings; several groups of lovers, -entwined, and breathing immeasurable tenderness, the most celebrated -of which is _Spring_ or _Love and Psyche._ Another _Psyche,_ alone, -is discovering Love asleep, with extraordinary restrained emotion; -and there are several attempts at _Poets and Muses,_ embracing or -consoling one another, as well as a splendid sketch of the _Magdalen -wiping Christ's Body with her Hair._ Rodin has thus sometimes touched -religious subjects, but with an undogmatic symbolism, philosophic -and wide. We may also enumerate another version in marble of the -_Nereids_ of the Hugo monument, a winged _Inspiration_ coming to -breathe upon the sleeping poet, and holding back the tips of her -wings with one hand lest she should make a sound in closing them; a -faun drawing towards him a nymph, who struggles in silent, fierce -resistance; two high-reliefs of _Summer_ and _Autumn_ in stone; tall -women with children, intended for the town of Evian, where Baron -Vitta is accumulating treasures of modern art; _Pygmalion_ beholding -his statue come to life, who, as soon as she feels herself live, -turns from him with a surprising movement of coquetry and aversion. -Such works as these cannot be described in words. In them Rodin has -excelled to an unparalleled degree in rendering the profoundest -psychological complexities, refined intentions, and the hesitations -of feeling. I will further note a sketch of _Sappho_, seated at -rest, with her arms leaning upon two little naked women, which is a -work inspired equally by the Greeks and by the eighteenth century; -it bears witness to the artist's wish of avoiding the massive, and -making as many holes as possible within the general block, so as to -give lightness and to allow a circulation of light, as the Greeks -did in works that were meant to stand against a background of sea or -of sky. Many studies of men and women crouching, or squatting, in -curious attitudes, recall the art of the Japanese bronzes, which Rodin -immensely admires. We must further note some groups of _Women Damned,_ -in which Rodin's art attains the highest point of voluptuous tension, -audacious suggestiveness, and tragic eagerness of the flesh aspiring -to impossible delight. This whole world of figures is ruled by the -same lyrical and poetic imagination, the same symbolism incarnated -in impeccable forms. Everywhere we find the same nervous art, -agitating, sad, and ardent in its voluptuous character, expressing the -insatiability of human souls; the aspiration of a troubled time towards -an ideality which would deliver it from the solicitations of pessimism; -the hope of escape by the way of desire; and love sought for in the -over-excitement of neurosis. Rodin, gloomy psychologist of passion, -understands the disease of the age, and at the same time pities it; a -true thinker, he extracts its mournful beauty without ceasing to retain -faith, admiration, and affection for the human creature. Bending over -life and over his work, he is himself his own _Thinker_, attentive and -reverent before an unknown and terrible divinity. Never did any other -sculptor attempt to vivify his art with such intellectual superiority -and by such meditations, and Rodin is at once the most realistic and -most metaphysical of poets in stone and bronze. - -[Illustration: ISIS] - -Two or three works of more important dimensions stand out from his -recent productions; besides a nude female torso (in bronze) of -startling truthfulness, and two plaster studies that astonished at -the Salons, and besides _The Christian Martyr_, so masterly in its -modelling, Rodin has continued to work at his _Ugolino,_ taken out of -_The Gate of Hell_, and has put the finishing touch to two plans. One -of these is the _Monument to Labour_, a grand conception, which one may -dream of seeing carried out and rising up in some square of busy Paris, -but which want of money will prevent from ever being realised. It is a -column upon a vast rectangular base, with a crypt in it. Two colossal -figures of _Night_ and _Day_ would stand at the entrance. In the crypt -would be shown, in bas-relief, different subterranean works--mining, -etc. Around the column would run a covered spiral staircase, and upon -the column itself would be figured in bas-reliefs all the various -manifestations of labour, so that as one ascended the stairs all the -divers phases of human genius could be successively studied. On the -top would hover the _Benedictions_, two--winged spirits, descended -from heaven, which are already executed in marble on a small scale, -and are among Rodin's finest conceptions. This colossal project was -conceived as long ago as 1897. The rough model is in the studio at -Meudon-Val-Fleury. - -[Illustration: NUDE STUDY] - -The monument to Puvis de Chavannes was entrusted to his friend Rodin, -and is already finished. Rodin conceived it in an original and charming -way. Instead of making the customary statue, he considered the purely -Greek quality of Puvis' genius and chose to pay homage to him in a form -reproduced from the antique. The bust of the great painter is placed -on a plain table, as the ancients placed those of their dead upon -little domestic altars. A fine tree loaded with fruit bends over and -shades the head. Leaning on the table behind the bust is a beautiful -naked youth, who sits dreaming in a well-chosen supple attitude. The -whole design is intimate, gentle, and pure. Placed on the ground in a -garden this votive monument would show how much delicacy and caressing -lightness sometimes lies in Rodin's sombre and pathetic thoughts. - -Another important group is that of _Orpheus and Eurydice._ Orpheus has -fallen on one knee and is lifting his great lyre towards the gods whom -he has just implored. Above him, almost on his back, suspended in a -way that would appear to contradict the laws of equilibrium and the -material conditions of sculpture, soars Eurydice, compassionate and -almost vaporous, truly an immaterial shade, with a smile of despair. -I regret that the unfinished condition of this model does not allow -me to publish a photograph of it, for nothing would give a clearer -impression of Rodin's originality in the matter of contour and in the -mutual relation of figures. The extreme freedom of his attitudes and -his caprices of balance are, indeed, the newest features that he has -brought into his art and are not to be found in anyone else in any -country or time. In these is his true signature, and by them his work -might be recognised among a hundred statues of all periods. As to the -expressive beauty of the faces and bodies, that is supreme. No one has -better comprehended than Rodin all that can be rendered by the naked -human body and all the intellectual significations that it can hide. -The nude is to Rodin a whole language. - -In his latest spiritualised works there is something Correggio-like -in the vibration of light upon the softened forms and amplified -surfaces. They suggest the _Antiope,_ at once soft and muscular, and -Rodin often speaks of "morbidezza" as a quality which he no longer -distrusts, whereas he formerly banished it from his ascetic, sinewy, -and dry figures. He gives his women the pulpy flesh of fruits. The -lines of landscape seem to him to correspond to the planes of the body; -he lately said to me that since he has lived at Meudon, opposite the -flowing Seine, the wooded hills and the fields, he has found useful -resemblances between the modelling of the body and that of a horizon. I -have even once suggested to him the title of "The Hill" for the body of -a young man reclining, the outline of which did in truth resemble the -undulations of a hill, and he retained the name and the analogy, for he -delights in everything that binds the human being to the earth, and, -like a true metaphysician, conceives of nothing isolated or distinct in -nature. - -I come now to Rodin's drawings, drawings which were not made to be -shown, but which, having nevertheless become known, have surprised -and puzzled people. Rodin's drawings, like some other drawings by -sculptors, are not themselves works of art; they are thoughts noted -down, and are not comprehensible unless they are seen with the statues -of which they indicate the first idea, or some variation. - -Rodin has published some of his sketches; and has produced some -dry-points (in particular the _Ronde_,[1] _Antonin Proust_, the three -portraits of Henry Becque, full face and two profiles upon the same -sheet, and two heads of Hugo), some drawings for books by M. Mirbeau -and M. Bergerat, and a complete set of illustrations of the _Fleurs -du Mal,_ in the form of marginal drawings for a unique copy belonging -to M. Gallimard. Many drawings in black or colour have been published -(by the clever lithographer Clot), and M. Fenaille has superintended -an admirable _edition de luxe_ of 142 drawings by Rodin.[2] -Notwithstanding this partial publicity, these works must be considered -as _standing apart;_ and to consider them by themselves would actually -be to injure Rodin with the public at large, since they form an -integral part of his statues. For this reason I have not chosen to -reproduce any of them here, studies so purely professional not seeming -to fall within the scope of a work intended to give a general idea of -an artist's work. - -Having said so much, I wish to dwell upon the great beauty of these -drawings--a special and terrible beauty. Many deal with Dante. Rodin -did some painting under Lecoq de Boisbaudron, landscapes, a portrait -of his father, and sketches after Rubens; but there has never been -any danger of painting intruding upon his vocation, and his sketches -rapidly became nothing but notes for sculpture. The objective reality -of his Dantesque figures is vague, if their subjective reality is -intense. Rodin, anxious to note down his impressions, and not to -_illustrate_, made his sketches into a sort of passionate writing, only -devoting himself to the scheme and to the contrasts of black and white, -and neglecting every detail. In these violent washes, these pencillings -and pen-scribbles, the spectator who is not forewarned sees nothing, -but the lover of art, who knows beforehand what to seek, follows the -creative thought. Nothing can be less like what is generally known as -"a drawing." After the regular drawings, the "painter's drawings" of -his first period, which have but a restricted interest, and which are -no longer known, those of his second manner are confusions of light and -shadow, and show fantastically. I will quote at this point a passage -from an essay by M. Clément Jasmin, a discerning critic, whose noisy -rivals do not give him his due place, and who has described these works -excellently. - -"These sketches are altogether the work of a sculptor, even in their -colour, which seems to have sunk into plaster or clay, and especially -in the firmness of their modelling, which is imparted by shaded touches -of body-colour, on grey paper, or rendered by spaces left white. These -blanks, these white spaces, are the extreme point of the modelling, -the 'high light' of some projection, which lower down is wrapped in -half-tints that carry the eye to the shadows of the inflections or -the hollows. There is a constant relation between the contour and -the interior modelling. A thrill is communicated by the fantastic -lighting of some sketches. Rodin adds further strength to this dramatic -distribution of lights and shadows by one or two tones that accentuate -the impression or fix a plan. Often his ink will become blue or yellow, -(water-colours, sepia, or coloured inks being employed), in order to -settle a value or intensify a feeling. Such is the case in the Fenaille -publication, with the gloomy red in the face of the Ugolino, of the -Dantesque Mahomet, whose entrails are hanging out, and of some other -figures dashed in, in black, on a violet background. One plainly feels -the material in which the work, of which the sketch is the first idea, -will be executed. It is always a sculptor who is at work, even when he -exchanges the chisel for the pen or the brush." - -Painters would scorn these drawings. They commonly believe that -sculptors cannot express upon a plane surface the mass and movement of -a body. In reality a painter's sketch and a sculptor's sketch differ -in intention and execution. Rodin's are translations of movements, -in no way decorative and not attempting to express either modelling -or detail, but, if we may say so, the abstract geometry, the thought -that commands the movement. The use of coloured inks, which are solely -meant to modify certain values that black or white would not express to -Rodin's mind, has given rise to mistakes. These colours are not there -to express real tints, as is the case in ordinary drawings thus touched -up; inaccurate things have been said about these colourings, and about -the fantastic and almost Japanese appearance of some of the plates. -Rodin is certainly not thinking of prints in colour. He makes these -notes instinctively, and displays not so much a deliberate thought as a -natural faculty of transcription. - -In his early drawings Rodin _refers to_--for I must insist upon the -point that the drawings do not _represent_ things--many of Dante's -persons and many fanciful animals, and later, to his statues. Now he -does not draw at all from literary impressions, but solely from the -living model. He uses ordinary cheap paper, a pencil or a pen; he -makes his model take some transitory, absolutely free position, often -in the rest between two sittings, and rapidly draws contour without -taking his eyes from the model and without looking at his sketch. -Sometimes the stroke will fall upon emptiness, the sheet of paper will -be too small, a head or a limb will fail to find its place. Naturally -this instantaneous sketch will be deformed in the most unexpected -way; the proportions are false, but the scheme of the contour and the -modelling of each piece are true. Often the hurrying pencil will miss -the curve of a breast or a leg. Then the artist will return to that -point with hasty, intermingled, impatient strokes that play around the -true line. His only concern is to fix the first view, the absolutely -living impression. Afterwards, in tracing his sketch, he rectifies, -but his chief aim is to amplify the impression of the life, taken -spontaneously, according to his principle of enlarging the form, in -order to place it better in the atmosphere (about in the proportion of -5/4 instead of 4/4). Then he connects the contours and further enlarges -the modelling, filling the outline with a wash of burnt-sienna, which -gives the general value, or sometimes with blue or red water-colour. -Rodin likes this practice in catching movements, and he has in his -studio hundreds of drawings of this kind that differ from his early -ones. Those aimed at the imaginative transcription of tragic and -literary elements under strange illuminations, and were almost like the -drawings of Odilon Redon; the later ones are merely graphic notes of -movements, and are incapable of having any direct aim or meaning. - -I must add a few words upon a delicate point of which I should not -have spoken if others had not spoken mistakenly upon the subject. -Rodin's drawings, especially those of the present time, have shocked -some people who have seen them by their licentious character. Why -should we assume embarrassment in explaining this? In all Rodin's work -there is a profound and violent sense of the voluptuous, and the stern -painter of the vices and damnations of hell does not need to think of -prudery. The elevation and dramatic character of his conceptions clothe -the most daring attitudes with the severe chastity of the beautiful. -In his sketches, made for himself alone, and in the privacy of his -studio, Rodin no more fears erotic positions than did Hokusai. Beneath -the original animality he perceives nature; and feminine sexuality, -its movements, and impulses interest him, because therein woman is -psychologically revealed. Everything, in physical desire, that exalts, -maddens, contorts, and fevers the human body is, for the sculptor, the -object of an intensely interested study that he does not communicate -to the general public; nor is he the only one among the great artists -of form whom the erotic has interested from this point of view. Only -mediocre minds and minds capable of low intentions see anything low in -the movements of life. Rodin's studies from the model, naked and free, -without spectators, in the serious presence of work, never sully his -grand and melancholy inspiration; and his daring art is assuredly that -which most leads away the beholder from erotic ideas, because it notes -in every human being the melancholy of the insatiable, and makes the -pleasure of the senses a suffering of the flesh and the spirit. By this -point he touches the profound morality of art, and his consciousness is -free from any equivocation. The recent drawings in which he catches the -animal attitudes of the model are thus no more questionable, from the -delicate point of view of which I am speaking, than anatomical plates, -or the sad immodesties of a post-mortem examination. He adds to them -the power of expressing passion with which he is endowed, but since he -only shows these drawings to friends and artists in whom nudity does -not arouse silly thoughts, this concerns no one else. A comparison -cannot even be ventured between these drawings and the masterly -etchings of Rops, which are deliberate illustrations of licentious -subjects, relieved only by beauty of execution, and which should only -be shown with express reservations. Rodin admires certain bronzes in -the secret museum at Naples, and certain Japanese prints, because in -these, too, art has done its work by expressing a secret and essential -spring of the nervous and psychological life of humanity; a fierce -and serious subject which only fools consider laughable or indecent, -because their minds approach it with indecorum and ridicule. But I -do not know that Rodin ever even yielded to the fancy of modelling -one of these subjects for himself, as Rubens and many others did not -forbid themselves to do. It is time, therefore, to have done with this -question in regard to the great French sculptor. I do not know for whom -he intends these recent drawings, a whole framed collection of which -occupies one of the storerooms of his country house. Perhaps he will -have them destroyed; in any case, they are but studies of movements and -masses, and in no way direct representations of life. - -Rodin's drawings are "rough drafts" to be compared with those of -a writer. Some are very impressive, and all constitute precious -evidence of his psychological preoccupations and of his desire for -simplification. But they remain on the margin of his work, and neither -the public nor the critics have those rights over them that belong to -biographers and friends. That is a point to be plainly specified, and -I desire to repeat that that is the reason this book contains none of -them. - - -[1] This word may mean either a certain sort of dance, or the "round" -of a patrol.--TRANS. - -[2] Album of 142 sketches, reproduced in heliogravure by M. Manzi and -published by Goupil, 1897. These sketches in wash or colour have been -selected according to the advice of M. Fenaille, their owner, who lent -them, from the most imaginative of Rodin's drawings in his second -manner. - - - - -V. - - -RODIN'S PRIVATE LIFE--HIS PERSON, STUDIO, AND HOME--HIS INFLUENCE; -SCULPTORS INSPIRED BY HIS IDEAS--RODIN'S PLACE IN THE FRENCH -SCHOOL--HIS PRESENT POSITION IN RESPECT TO ACADEMIC SCULPTURE - - -Auguste Rodin is in person a man of middle height, with an enormous -head upon a massive torso. At first sight one sees nothing of him but -this leonine bust, the head with its strong nose, flowing grey beard, -and small, keen, light-coloured eyes, slightly veiled by short sight -and by a gentle irony. The impression of power is accentuated by the -rolling gait, the rocky aspect of the troubled brow under the rough -brush of hair, the bony thickness of the aquiline nose and the ample -curls of beard. But the first impression is partly contradicted by -the reticent line of the mouth, the quick look, penetrating, simple, -and arch, (one of the most composite glances I have ever seen), and -especially by the voice, which is hollow, not easily modulated, with -deep inflections and sudden returns to a dental pronunciation, and -of which the meaning and intention are further modified by certain -very expressive tossings of the head. He appears simple, precise, -reserved, courteous, and cordial, without liveliness. Little by little -his shyness gives place to a calm and remarkable tone of authority. -He is neither emphatic nor awkward, and would seem rather dispirited -than inspired. An immense energy breathes in his sober and measured -gestures. The slowness and apparent embarrassment of his speech and -the pauses in his conversation give especial significance to what he -says; moreover, Rodin has acquired of late years a genuine case as a -talker and even as a writer, which previously he did not possess. I was -intimately acquainted with Stéphane Mallarmé, who, measured by Rodin, -was incomparably eloquent, and I often associate these two men in my -thoughts. The voices were alike, and Rodin, too, with his improvised -phrases, has the same veiled circumspect way of speech, hitting -suddenly upon words that illuminate the idea. - -[Illustration: AUGUSTE RODIN] - -Rodin, in speaking of any work of his, has a way of explaining it that -is very elliptical, but very clear, and which has caused some brilliant -chatterers to say, because he did not offer a prolix commentary, that -he did not know what he had done. In reality he utters the essential, -and his gesture, which seems to model his thought in space, completes -his words. He looks lovingly on his creations, and sometimes seems to -meditate in astonishment at the idea of having created them; he speaks -of them as though they existed apart from himself. - -Gradually, beneath Rodin's essential simplicity, one discovers features -that were at first hidden; he is ironical, sensuous, nervous, proud. -He contains as possibilities all the passions that he expresses with -so vibrating a magnificence, and one begins to perceive the secret -links between this calm, almost cheerful man and the art that he -reveals. At certain moments his clear and rather vague eyes become -full of phosphorescent points, the face grows sardonic and almost -faunlike; at others it saddens and discloses a sickness for infinity. -This man is the comrade of his dumb white creatures; he loves them, -follows their abstract life, has moral obligations towards them. -Fundamentally the one thing with which Rodin is really concerned is -the life of permanent forms. Of late celebrity, age, and experience -have disposed him to become an adviser, a master, and he has begun -to talk aesthetics. But his ideas and opinions are restricted. He -perceives human beings only very summarily, his cordiality is a way -of fulfilling his social duties hastily. He has, if I may venture the -expression, very fine moral antennae, and they serve to recognise the -persons whom he will like. Very capable of friendship, Rodin reduces -friendship to tacit agreements upon the essential subjects of thought, -and it is only if one meets him upon one of these points that one -takes a place in his remembrance or his liking. He does not put his -faith in individuals, but in general ideas. He loves nothing but his -work, and endures everything else with civil boredom. He has a horror -of debates and disturbances. I have never heard him speak ill of bad -artists; he neglects, but does not criticise. He has a silent humour -which leads him to make busts of official and mediocre sculptors, with -an amusing good grace. Uncompromising in everything that touches his -art, Rodin has throughout his whole career endured severe struggles -and grave injustices, and, too proud to dispute, has never shown his -secret revolts. At the time when the _Balzac_ was refused all Rodin's -friends said to him: "Resist, force your work upon them; you ought, -for the work's sake, and a court would surely decide for you, for your -agreement is definitely in your favour." He listened and thanked them, -always good-tempered, and then withdrew his statue without saying -anything. - -It is not weakness, for Rodin has had an excessively hard life and -is strong and patient; it is dignity of the inner life and profound -indifference for the life about him. Rodin is a high dignitary of -the Legion of Honour, a president of the judges of sculpture of an -important society of artists (the Société Nationale), he is honoured -all over Europe, has been received in England as a genius, and has -succeeded Whistler as the head of a chosen band of artists; but he -remains the man that he was when he was unknown and poor in his -solitude at Brussels. - -He likes few things, but likes those thoroughly. He reads little, but -what he reads strikes home to him as to no one else; Baudelaire and -Rousseau, in whom he delights, are instances. He is passionately fond -of music, especially of Gluck, but seldom speaks of it. He simplifies -everything, sees only the main lines in morality as in art, lives by -two or three principles, and has an aversion for everything that is -not essential. - -[Illustration: A CORNER OF RODIN'S STUDIO AT MEUDON] - -When one knows Rodin well one ceases to be able to separate him from -his work. He can no longer think otherwise than symbolically by slow -deposits of accumulated sensation which work on in the deep strata of -his consciousness and suddenly blossom and take a name. His statues are -states of the soul. He is himself a representative being, surprised at -his own immanence, and his intelligence is outdone by his instinct. -That is how it comes about that he does not always know how to name -the beings that he has discovered, as we discover, by means of pain, -corners of our consciousness that we had not suspected. In the same way -that Rodin seems to break away the fragments of a block from around -an already existing statue hidden in it, he is himself a sort of rock -concealing shapes within it and embracing in its secret recesses -immense crystallised arborescences. With a simple enough personal -psychology he expresses infinite shades and inflexions of emotion. His -thought is like the monad of Leibnitz; it seems, when one sees the man, -to have no window to the outer world. - -Rodin's opinions upon social life are vague. He contents himself with -repeating that work lovingly done is the secret of all order and all -happiness. To love life and natural forms, and to attempt nothing -disobedient to Nature or her aims, that is his whole morality. - -He sees very few people and visits nobody. He would baffle visitors -accustomed to elegant, literary, well-informed, brilliant artists. His -studio in the Rue de l'Université, at the end of an old yard encumbered -by blocks of marble and shaded by aged chestnut trees, is like the -work-place of a poor beginner. Neither a carpet nor an ornament is -to be seen; the stone floor, the bare walls, a few rush chairs, some -modelling stands, some cloths, a shabby deal table loaded with papers, -sketches piled up on shelves, blouses hanging on nails, a cast-iron -stove--these and nothing more are found by the many foreign admirers -who come to see Rodin, and whom he receives with invariable amiability -amid his assistants at work upon the Hugo monument or upon some smaller -piece of marble. - -[Illustration: A CORNER OF RODIN'S STUDIO AT MEUDON] - -Setting aside his journeys to London and Prague and his travels in -Germany and Italy, Rodin leads an extremely retired life in Paris, and -is rarely to be met. He invariably lunches at his own house at Meudon, -then goes to the Rue de L'Université to work, and goes home again to -dinner. Formerly, before he had his house at Meudon, he used to lunch -at a _café_ in the Place de L'Alma, where he was to be seen for twenty -years, and to which people used to go to see him, rather as people -go to see Ibsen in Christiania. The house, of a sixteenth-century -style, that Rodin has inhabited at Meudon since 1900, is situated amid -vineyards, and stands alone at the end of a sort of cliff, overlooking -all Paris, the Seine, and the Bois de Boulogne, and facing the wooded -heights of Saint Cloud and Bellevue. The site is open and fine; Rodin -enjoys immense expanses of sky, sunsets, storms, and moonlight nights -that delight him. The house is spacious, light, furnished with extreme -simplicity, and adorned by a few pictures, the works of friends (in -particular his portraits by Sargent and Legros). Rodin has added to -it the pavilion in iron and glass, in which he exhibited all his -work, at the Rond-point de l'Alma, in the exhibition of 1900. This -pavilion, rebuilt and full of brilliant sunlight, contains all the -artist's statuary. There are also several small studios, in which -Rodin has his marble rough-hewn, keeps the casts of his statues or -accumulates the collections of bronzes, marbles, antique or Gothic, -and fragments which he is never tired of finding out and buying. In -this place, which, after a life of difficulties and worries, Rodin has -been able to purchase, he leads a life that fully suits his tastes, -among beautiful trees and flowers, with a majestic landscape before -him. It is touching to see the man, here, amid the enormous mass of -his work, a whole world of statues, with which he lives and which sums -up all his labours and all his existence. A photograph which I am able -to add to the illustrations of this volume will give a partial idea -of that surprising and imposing cohort of figures in clay, marble, -and bronze--that impassioned or tragic throng. Rodin receives very -few visitors at Meudon--hardly any but old friends, and he spends his -mornings in his garden or in his light and cheerful studio drawing or -superintending his workmen. It is chiefly at Meudon that he prepares -his rough drafts, the main lines of his compositions; and in order to -see an effect he will often hastily put together with clay some of -the plaster limbs that he keeps in a number of glass cases--quite an -anatomical museum in fact, filling a whole storey, and containing -hundreds of pieces and of attitudes piled together. - -[Illustration: STUDY (IN BRONZE) FOR THE "BALZAC"] - -Rodin appears to stand alone in his own time; first, by his genius; -and secondly, by the special character of his artistic conception. -This solitude, however, is only apparent. Rodin's ideas, as opposed -to the teaching of the "École," form a body of logical principles -which are slowly attracting the adhesion of young artists. The long -struggle of impressionism against academism has now entered upon its -last phase: the return to the French tradition, to national affiliation -in opposition to the Roman neo-classicism. That idea, which is the -programme of all independent and interesting critical intelligence in -our country, finds in Rodin its perfect demonstration, and the only -one afforded by contemporary sculpture. Until now Rodin has preached -only by example, and we know how slow the critics and the public are in -extracting from a work the ideas that it contains. But the extraction -is now begun, and Rodin himself speaks with undisputed authority. Since -the exhibition of 1900 his moral position stands ten times higher. -Youth greets him as a chieftain and his detractors are silent. While -the synthetic and symbolic mind of Rodin arouses the enthusiasm and -inspires the thoughts of writers, the theory of the amplification of -the modelling is making its way in the studios of sculptors. "Rodin has -opened a large window in the pale house of contemporary sculpture," -declares Pierre Roche, the sculptor; "out of the timid and much -impaired craft that was before his day he has shown that a bold art -full of hope can be made." This opinion of one of the most delicate -artists of our generation is precisely that of many independent -sculptors. Among these we must quote Emile Bourdelle, Rodin's pupil -and friend, an impassioned, vibrating, and generous artist, whose -works are among those first looked for in each Salon. Others are the -two brothers Gaston and Lucien Schnegg, the latter of whom exhibited -in the Salon of 1904 so beautiful a head of Aphrodite, almost worthy -in the mysterious and vaporous beauty of its planes, of the ancients, -and of Rodin; Jules Desbois, of the first rank in technical skill and -of a violently original temperament; Alexandre Charpentier, a former -collaborator of Rodin's, whose success in applied art has not turned -him aside from his expressive and vigorous work in statuary; Mlle. -Camille Claudel, Rodin's pupil, who is the first woman sculptor of -existing-art in France, and whose name has appeared upon admirable -works; and finally, Pierre Roche, although his supple and decorative -fancy denies itself the expression of the tragic. The Swiss sculptor -Niederhausern-Rodo, George Minne, the sculptor of Ghent, who has a -powerful creative genius, not understood, and the Italian sculptor -Rosso, are also partisans of Rodin's art, and so is the Englishman -Bartlett. In another direction it is very interesting to note the -curious reciprocal influence of Auguste Rodin and Eugène Carrière, -who are united by friendship and by the same aesthetic creed. Eugène -Carrière, the most profound painter of the inner life existing in the -French school of to-day, has great analogies with Rodin, both as a man -and as an artist. He, too, reduces his art to essentials, to the main -lines and the deliberate amplification of surfaces. Thus his figures, -bathed in shadow, are akin to Rodin's statues, while the latter, bathed -with dewy light, seem to be pictures by Carrière. The painter becomes -massive and powerful, the sculptor becomes vaporous. Rodin seeks the -bland, half-shadows of Correggio, and Carrière desires that his figures -should have the powerful relief of bronze. The painter sacrifices -colour to the sole study of values, and by his black-and-white comes -back to sculpture. Very curious is this point of junction between -two great artists. Rodin is beginning to explain himself with the -pen; and Eugène Carrière has, for some years past, been writing--too -rarely--passages upon art of which the style is admirable and the -concentration of thought astonishing, passages which recall Mallarmé -and Baudelaire, and leave far behind the commonplaces of journalistic -criticism. Rodin and Carrière have their school, their circle of chosen -admirers, and their double influence may soon be the most decisive, if -not the most brilliant and the noisiest, in French art of to-day. - -NUDE FIGURE (PHOTOGRAPHED IN THE OPEN AIR AT TWILIGHT IN THE GARDEN AT -MEUDON) - -The prevailing note of opinion about Rodin among his friends and his -detractors is that he is like no one else, and that no statue can, in a -manner, be looked at beside his, so individual is the conception from -which they spring. By the mere fact that they exist, they compel us to -choose between them and the others. Their silhouettes, their planes, -the quality of their shadows, and their lights, make them technically -works apart. If such a man understands sculpture thus, either he is -right, against everybody, or he is totally mistaken; we cannot like him -and also approve of ordinary statuary. His psychological and tragic -genius conquers the admiration even of those who oppose his material -execution. Rodin does not set himself up as a chief, nor recognise -followers; yet he is a chief by his very work. - -He is the greatest living French artist, and one of the most complex -and powerful movers of thought in modern art. He does not found a -school, but he influences the soul of a generation. He remains alone, -not susceptible of imitation; but if he did not exist sculpture would -be deprived of its greatest regenerator.[1] By inscribing passions -in symbols, he touches the sensibilities of all, and is a master -to poets as much as to sculptors, because his subjects are moral, -affecting, never commanded by an anecdote, bathed in the universally -lyric. Attempts have been made to blame him because of the admiration -of writers; it has been said, with an inflexion of scorn (especially -in the circles of his fellow-artists), "he is a _littéraire_." An -injustice easily committed at a time when the intellect of painters -and sculptors seems to blush at itself, and when they make it a sort -of false merit to show that their eye and hand are separate from their -brain. Rodin's splendid technical power annuls the reproach and retains -the praise. Resting firmly upon nature, his symbols may rise high. -Rodin delights poets because he makes the infinite emanate from the -most finite of arts. - -Everything has been patiently meditated by him. He dares, but is never -overbold; his balance and his taste are those of a classic, despite -the uncomprehending astonishment of the academic sculptors, hypnotised -by the sophistry of _finish_ and _elegance_, and confusing the _exact_ -with the _true._ There is a synthesized form, that corresponds to -reality synthesized in symbols, a _second truth;_ and that proportion -is observed by very few artists. Most of them, contenting themselves -with an immediate, momentary, anecdotic truth, translate it by -picturesque observation, or by minutely detailed copying. This attempt -of a sterile cleverness to transcribe the instantaneous is the very -contrary of art, the first character of which is to display the laws -of vital permanence underlying fugitive aspects. Herein lies the reason -why sculptors become uneasy over Rodin, while writers, more familiar -with general ideas, become enthusiastic. The impressionist crisis--the -study, that is to say, of instantaneous lights and actions--hardly got -over, he brings in this _second truth,_ the transcription of general -and permanent feelings into a form that speaks as much to the mind as -to the senses. Such a man dominates impressionism as much as he does -academism. - -A whole order of curious and fundamental relations between nervous -sensibility and thought has arisen out of his work. Rodin's personality -is specially representative in the line of French sculptors. He goes -back, as I have said, to the Egyptians and the Greeks in the matter -of technical ideas. In his tragic feeling he proceeds directly from -the Gothic artists. It is from them that he descends, and especially -from the sculptors of the French Renascence, in particular Germain -Pilon; and he blends his Greek remembrances, passed through an Italian -influence, with a conception altogether national, vigorous, and -decorative. Rodin's actual part is to take up sculpture exactly at -the moment of the French evolution.[2] Since that time we have had -some great masters; native genius has been triumphantly upheld, in -opposition to the false school that came from the Alps, by Coysevox, -Houdon, Puget, Pajou, Pigalle, Clodion, Falconet, Couston, Rude, -Carpeaux, and Barye, a line of splendid inventors of shapes, all of -whom, in contradistinction to the official school, have represented -the inmost qualities of their race. All these men Rodin emulates by -the importance of his work; perhaps the future may regard him as -the magnificent outcome of their efforts carried on through three -centuries. In this succession of artists, Puget, Rude, and Barye are -those with whom his technical relations are closest.[3] But he has been -less decorative than Puget and less hampered by the themes imposed -upon him; he has gone further than the great Rude in the expression of -inward emotion, and he surpasses even Barye in power of modelling and -boldness of silhouette. He has created a world which is fully his own, -a feeling and a pathos not to be found elsewhere, which are the very -soul of his time. - -Rodin, then, can be set only beside Puget and Rude. Like Puget, he is -overflowing with vitality and with passionate frenzy; he worships power -and heroic beings; but his are sad, and nearer to Gothic asceticism -and to the nervous derangement of Baudelaire than to the resplendent -pomp of the seventeenth century, into which Puget transposed his -heroes of Rome and of Corneille. Like Rude, he is attracted by deep -things, by soul tragedies; but he is more abstract than the creator -of the _Napoleon Awakening to Immortality_, the _Joan of Arc,_ or -the _Marseillaise._ Rodin is more general, more synthetic; he turns -his mind to permanent symbols, outside of ages and races. Taking up, -as if in challenge, the mythological subjects that the "École" had -most spoiled, he has shown how a great mind can renew all things and -impress upon them the magic of its vision. He is the most symbolic -of our men of genius; and if the modelling of the Greeks, Gothic -austerity, the strength of Puget and of Rude, have helped Rodin to -make up his personality, the fusion of these elements and the addition -of a personal imagination and an extraordinary contemplative faculty -have enabled him, like Wagner, who descended from Bach, Beethoven, and -Liszt, to create, after and apart from all of them, work that resumes -them and forgets them, to become in its turn an initiator. The point -in which Rodin is inimitable is the expression of the voluptuous with -all its latent woes; and this point strongly recalls to memory _Tristan -and Isolde_, which is such a paroxysm as might touch the most perilous -region of exceptional art; but Rodin is kept within the bounds of the -normal, and protected from the audacities of his strange and troubled -imagination, by his imperturbable technical certainty and by his -admiration for some few masters. As was the case with Baudelaire and -with Poe, his purity and grandeur of form save him; like Dante, this -lover of gloomy beauty hangs over the verge of passion's hell without -falling into it. - -Rodin's art is healthy because it feeds upon natural truth and general -logic. He is the supreme painter of man bowed by intense, melancholic, -feverish, constricting thought; but also, with a candid tenderness -unknown to Wagner, he is the caressing creator of women in love, the -poet of youth, embracing and radiant. Only a genius can have the -diversity of mind that produces _The Burghers of Calais_, ascetic -and mediæval, the spasmodic _Hell_, the almost abstract _Balzac_, -the bronze busts worthy of Donatello, and the images of women carved -in the radiant and golden marble of Attica by a sensuous and subtle -enthusiast who has rediscovered the soul of Hellenic beauty. This union -of technical skill, evolved according to the secrets of the antique -with a power of expressing all human sentiments from gentleness to -lewdness, from the mystic to the pathetic, from nervous disorganisation -to carnal frankness, this union of contraries and this universality are -not to be found in any of our forerunners. Not Puget, nor Rude, nor -any of our masters has had such intellectual ubiquity, such strength -of condensation; in these points it is allowable, even in our own day, -to acknowledge Rodin as supreme in the rich French school, and thus to -anticipate the judgment of the future, in whose eyes he will loom yet -larger. - -In any case it was high time he should appear; he has been as useful -as was Manet by his intervention in French art. In spite of Dalou, -sculpture had fallen very low after the death of Carpeaux and Barye; -the deplorable school of the Second Empire had brought it into -degeneracy, and we could reckon no one in sculpture to correspond -to the great impressionists. Such men as Dujalbert, Chapu, Mercié, -Frémiet, Saint Marceaux, and Falguière, are but sham great sculptors, -nothing of whose work will last; the "École" group, from Paul Dubois -to Barrias, Aube and Guillaume, is a mere example of pretentious -insignificance. The few vigorous temperaments, or workers of genuine -technical merit, like Denys Puech, Jean Dampt, Gardet, Camille -Lefèvre, Devillez, and Jean Bassier, did not know how to put together -their efforts in such a way as to found a real school. They produced -without attaining a cohesion of thought capable of guiding a fresh -generation. Bartholomé, thoughtful, pure, dreamy, and proud, stands -apart. Mme. Besnard and M. Théodore Rivière are charming, but without -influence. I have spoken of the group that has spontaneously placed -itself around Rodin. Amid this interesting, unequal, and scattered -sculpture he appeared with the authority of a master and a prophet; -his work set the question upon its true basis again, showing whence we -came, what was to be avoided, and whither we were to go; and all this -with such clearness of evidence that the appearance of Rodin becomes, -in like degree with that of Goujon and that of Puget, a capital date -in the history of the French school, I declared in the Preface my -intention to avoid any extravagant eulogy of Rodin, and have uttered -my dislike of the idolatry by which some people think it necessary -publicly to emphasise their admiration, with its snobbish accretions. -But I should fall into the opposite fault if I did not declare the -truth and the importance of what such an artist brings to his art, and -did not mark his exact place in the line of his country's sculpture. -Henley has called Rodin the Michael Angelo of the modern world. That -opinion of a foreign critic, a critic justly esteemed one of the most -upright in contemporary literature, France may justly make her own, -far from extravagant and puerile praises, and in the face of the work -accomplished. I shall be but too happy if I have contributed to make -clearer to the public certain secret reasons, certain inner frameworks, -of that logical and beautiful work. - - -[1] A vehement but indiscriminating critic, M. Octave Mirbeau, has seen -good to write, by way of affirming that Rodin's art moved him strongly: -"A style takes rise from him." I have neither the space nor the wish to -recriminate; but it would be dangerous to let such artistic heresies -pass without protest. Rodin is an admirable example, but to say that -a style arises from him is to say that he may become the creator of a -perishable formula, and to understand nothing about his art. - -[2] Some surprise may be felt at my having failed to insist upon the -name of Michael Angelo. Everybody has hit upon the obvious comparison. -It is the exceeding obviousness that leads me to distrust it. Rodin is -much nearer to Puget than to Michael Angelo, who is muscular strength -carried to heroic proportions. Rodin, like Puget, and more than Puget, -is nervous strength. Rodin appears much more akin to Michael Angelo -than he really is. Careful study causes us more and more to leave -behind that preliminary likeness which has sufficed so many critics. - -[3] We might perhaps say the same in regard to the great Carpeaux, too, -who carried the art of movement and expression to so high a degree, and -who did the same liberal work against the "École" as Rodin was to do at -a later time. But their visions, aims, and minds differ profoundly. - - - - -VI - - -APPENDIX--CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF RODIN'S PRINCIPAL WORKS--LIST OF THE -PRINCIPAL BOOKS OR ARTICLES WRITTEN ABOUT HIM--QUOTATIONS REFERRING TO -HIM--AN OPINION OF EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE'S; AN OPINION OF HENLEY'S--VARIOUS -NOTES - - -Chronological catalogue of Rodin's works is almost impossible to draw -up. I do not think Rodin himself could do it. It must be remembered -that before 1877 he made a quantity of studies which he destroyed, -and such a producer as he is willing to neglect things of which -others would keep count. In his poor and wandering days Rodin must -have abandoned many things. How would it be possible to recount the -figures that were retouched or even executed at Carrier-Belleuse's, -the earliest independent works, the characters executed by him at -Brussels, the statues that were planned and left unfinished for lack -of money, those that were broken or that failed--all the immense store -of work accomplished in the course of twenty years by a man who worked -every day? How would it be possible even to enumerate the sketches -and varied renderings of different subjects piled up in the studio at -Meudon, in the Clos Payen, in the Rue des Fourneaux, and at Vaugirard? -It is a whole world. I will confine myself, therefore, to a statement -of known and exhibited works: and these, indeed, are what is essential. - - -LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL EXHIBITED WORKS - -1864. _The Man with a Broken Nose._ - -1865-70. Works in the studio of Carrier-Belleuse. - -1872-77. Friezes upon the Bourse and various works at Brussels. - -1877. _The Primitive Man (The Age of Brass)._ Decorative work on the -Trocadéro. - -1878-80. _Saint Jerome. Saint John the Baptist._ Works in the -manufactory of Sèvres. Competition for the National Defence Monument. - -1881. _Adam_ (destroyed). _Eve._ - -1882. _Ugolino_ (a sketch taken up again later). Busts of _Alphonse -Legros_ and _IV. E. Henley._ Studies for _The Gate of Hell._ - -1883. _Bellona. General Lynch_ (equestrian statue). _The Genius of -War._ - -1884. Monument of _President Vicunha. Bust of a Young Woman._ - -1885. _The Man and the Serpent._ Busts of _Dalou, Hugo,_ and _Antonin -Proust._ - -1886. First sketch of the Hugo monument. Drawings dealing with _The -Gate of Hell._ Bust of _Henry Becque. The Kiss_ (a small group). - -1887. _Perseus and the Gorgon. Head of St. John beheaded._ - -1888. _The Danaid. Alan Walking._ Nude study for one of the _Burghers -of Calais._ Several little groups. - -1889. Studies for the _Gate of Hell_ and the monument to _Claude -Lorraine. Torso of a Woman._ Group of _The Dream. The Dream of Life. -Women Damned_ (in marble). _Hecuba._ Bust of _Roger Marx. Destitution. -Thought_ (in marble). - -1890. _Bust of a Young Woman_ (in silver). _Torso of Saint John. -Brother and Sister._ - -1891. _The Caryatid. The Young Mother. A Nymph._ - -1892. Busts of _Puvis de Chavannes_ and _Henri Rochefort. Grief. -Claude Lorraine. The Burghers of Calais._ - -1893. _The Death of Adonis._ Medallion of _César Franck. Galatea._ -Bust of _Séverine. The Crest and the Wave. Resurrection. The Child -Achilles_ (group in clay). - -1894. _Eternal Spring. Hope_ (a reclining figure in back view.) -_Orpheus and Eurydice_ (first version). _Christ and Magdalen._ - -1895. Inauguration of _The Burghers of Calais. Illusion,_ the _Daughter -of Icarus._ Medallion of _Octave Mirbeau._ Nude studies for the -_Balzac. Man Crouching._ - -1896. _The Inner Voice. The Muse of Anger_ (for the Hugo monument). -_The Conqueror. Minerva. The Poet and the Life of Contemplation. Women -Bathing._ Studies for the _Balzac._ - -1897. _Victor Hugo. Balzac._ Monument of _President_ _Sarmiento._ - -1898. Statue of _Balzac._ Bust of a _Young American._ Bust of _Madame -F._ Statue of _Sarmiento,_ with a high relief of Apollo in marble. -Monument of _Labour. The Benedictions_ (marble). _Twilight. Clouds._ -_The Parcæ and the Young Girl._ - -1899. Works for the Hugo monument. - -1900. Marble groups. Exhibition at the Rond-point de l'Alma. - -1901. _Shades_ (for _The Gate of Hell)._ - -1902. Groups in marble. _The Hand of God._ Busts. - -1903. Bust of _Hugo. The Poet and the Muse._ Various sketches. -_Ugolino_ (fresh version). _The Prodigal Son._ - -1904. _The Thinker_, and various works in marble in process of -execution.[1] - -The work of Rodin may thus be estimated at about ten works on a grand -scale, forty groups or statues, some thirty important busts, and -perhaps two hundred figures or portraits, without counting sketches, -from 1877 to 1904. - -I come now to the mention of some significant writings that deal with -his aesthetic theory or with his work; and, as may be supposed, I leave -out of question a quantity of valueless articles, for Rodin has been -directly or indirectly the pretext for a great mass of writings, and -is the modern French artist who has been most talked of, justly or -unjustly. The works quoted are such as may be consulted with advantage. - - -[1] To these may be added, in 1905, a bust of the Rt. Hon. _George -Wyndham_, and _The Hand of God._ - - - - -ARTICLES OR BOOKS RELATING TO RODIN - -"Balzac and Rodin," by Roger Marx (_Le Voltaire,_ March, 1892). - -"Claude Lorraine," by Roger Marx (_Le Voltaire,_ June, 1892). -(Excellent studies in the criticism of sculpture.) - -"Auguste Rodin," by Roger Marx (_Pan,_ and _The Image,_ September, -1897). - -Drawings by Rodin, 129 plates, containing 142 heliogravures (Goupil and -Co., 1897), from the suggestions and loans of M. Fenaille. - -"Rodin's Studio," by Edouard Rod (_Gazette des Beaux Arts,_ May, 1898). - -"Rodin," by Gabriel Mourey (_Revue illustrée,_ October, 1899) - -_Exhibition of 1900: Rodin's Works,_ with four prefaces by Eugène -Carrière, Jean Paul Laurens, Claude Monet, and Albert Besnard. - -"Rodin and Legros," by Arsène Alexandre (_Figaro,_ June, 1900). - -"The Gate of Hell," by Anatole France (_Figaro,_ June 1st, 1900). - -_La Revue des Beaux Arts et des Lettres,_ January 1st, 1900. - -_La Plume,_ 1900. Special number. - -_Les Maîtres Artistes,_ special number, October 15th, 1903. -(Illustrated collections, containing a certain number of critical -studies by various authors.) - -_Rodin,_ by Léon Riotor: a pamphlet, reproducing in French, German, -English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian, a study that appeared in the -_Revue populaire des Beaux Arts,_ April 8th, 1899. - -_Rodin, the Sculptor,_ a volume of criticism, illustrated; by Léon -Maillard (Floury); 1899. - -_The Sculptor Rodin, drawn from life._ A volume by Mlle. Judith Cladel -(_La Plume_ office, 1903). - -_Rodin,_ a study by L. Brieger-Wasser (Vogel. Strassburg; 1903). - -_Rodin,_ by George Treu (_Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst._ Berlin, -Marstersteig, 1903). - -_Rodin,_ by R. M. Rilke (Berlin, Bard, 1903). - -"Rodin." Articles upon, by W. E. Henley, 1890; D. S. MacColl, 1902; -Henri Duhem, 1890; Karel B. Made (Prague); Vittorio Pica (Rome). - -Of these various writings devoted to Rodin, those of Roger Marx should -be particularly noted, on account of their technical understanding; -Léon Maillard's volume is a sincere, well-informed, well-illustrated -book, produced by a man who comprehends. The book by Mlle. Judith -Cladel, daughter of the distinguished novelist, is an originally -conceived volume, the only one that relates certain conversations, and -attempts, with charming acuteness, to present Rodin in his private -character. It is a work that deserves to be much better known and -appreciated, and of which Rodin's first panegyrists, jealous of being -the only "inventors" of the artist, have been very careful not to -speak. The article by the graceful painter, Henri Duhem, is likewise -excellent; and I consider Mr. MacColl's very remarkable, on account of -its elevation and precision of judgment. The others have such value -as belongs to admiring articles written hurriedly in newspapers: they -express sympathetic feelings, or comment in a poetical way upon the -subjects, but their critical value is négligeable, and there is nothing -to be quoted from them for the information of my readers. The _Balzac_ -gave rise to a shoal of newspaper articles. Georges, Rodenbach, and -France, on that occasion, said the acute and witty thing's about -Rodin that they say about all manifestations of thought, and M. -Mirbeau made Rodin the theme of some of those polemical variations, -conjoining hyperbolical praise with abuse of his adversaries, which -he is accustomed to offer as art-criticisms, and which have gained -him a reputation of a certain kind. There is nothing to note in these -pamphlets mixed with eulogistic effusions, the whole of which do not -contain the substance of twenty lines by Henley or of Eugène Carrière's -admirable Preface, which I am desirous of reproducing here because it -is a masterpiece of synthetic divination.[1] - - -[1] Preface to the Catalogue of the Rodin exhibition in the Pavillon -de l'Alma, 1900. (The work mentioned above; other prefaces by Claude -Monet, A. Besnard, and J. P. Laurens.) - - - -"THE ART OF RODIN - - -"Rodin's art comes from the earth and returns to it, like those giant -blocks--rocks or dolmens--which mark deserts, and in the heroic -grandeur of which man recognises himself. - -"The transmission of thought by art, like the transmission of life, is -the work of passion and of love. - -"Passion, whose obedient servant Rodin is, makes him discover the laws -that serve to express it; she it is that gives him the sense of volumes -and proportions, the choice of the expressive prominence. - -"Thus the earth projects external apparent forms, images, and statues -that fill us with a sense of its internal life. - -"These terrestrial forms were the real guides of Rodin. They have set -him free from scholastic traditions, in them he found his being and the -creative instinct of men whom humanity celebrates. - -"Trees and plants revealed to him their likeness to those fair women, -with sleek limbs rising, like delicate columns, to the moving torso and -swelling breast, above which the head hangs heavily in the company of a -strong and supple neck, even as a fine fruit full of savour weighs down -its branch. - -"The massive brow overshadows the eyes, and the cheek brings the lip -softly to the lover's entreaty. - -"Forms seek and meet in voluptuous desires of violence and of -resignation, rebellious and obedient to laws from which nothing -escapes; everywhere conscious logic triumphs. - -"The generalising spirit of Rodin has imposed solitude upon him. It -has not been his lot to work upon the cathedral that is not, but his -desire of humanity links him to the eternal forms of nature." - -After such a passage, in which every word is significant and eloquent, -and is a great artist's reflection, everything seems pale. I will not, -however, confine myself to a mere dry mention of the essay by Vittorio -Pica, the great Italian critic, who generously arranged for Rodin's -participation in the Venetian Exhibition (Gallery of Modern Art, 1897), -and I should have liked to quote Anatole France's fine article, and -some assertions of Mr. MacColl's, who very logically recalls to our -memory the sculptor Auguste Préault, who is too much forgotten, and -who was, indeed, a sort of imperfect precursor of Rodin. I must at -least transcribe a few lines from W. E. Henley, who was, from the very -beginning, a clear-sighted admirer of Rodin, and who spoke of him with -eloquence and passion:-- - -"M. Dalou ... has declared that when the century goes out it will -remember the aforesaid doors" (i.e. _The Gate of Hell_) "as its heroic -achievement in sculpture. And if that be true--as I believe it to be -true--then where, between himself and Michael Angelo, is there so -lofty a head as Rodin's?... His busts alone were enough to place him -in the future, the style of them is so complete, the treatment so -large and so distinguished, the effect so personal, yet so absolute in -art.... Here, if you will, are a thousand hints of the possibilities of -human passion: from Paolo and Francesca melting into each other: - - "'La bocca mi bacio tutta tremante' - -as no man and woman have done in sculpture since sculpture began.... -Here is sculpture in its essence.... You may read into it as much -literature as you please, or as you can; but the interpolation is -not Rodin's, but your own.... It is not literature in relief, nor -literature in the round; it is sculpture pure and simple.... Passion is -with him wholly a matter of form and surface and line, and exists not -apart from these.... He is our Michael Angelo; and if he had not been -that, he might have been our Donatello. And with Phidias and Lysippus -all these some-and-twenty centuries afar, what more is left to say of -the man of genius whose art is theirs?" - -We see that Henley's admiration returns to the comparison of Michael -Angelo and Rodin. I persist in thinking that the resemblance rather -lies in moral identity, in conception than in technicalities. The -muscular enlargement of the Italian hero is not Rodin's amplification -nor his expressiveness, _which is altogether nervous._ It is none the -less true that these two men are the only ones who have imagined and -realised a sculpturesque conception of so vast a reach. Not even Puget -and Rude, who came between them, ventured such wholes as _The Tomb of -the Medici_ or _The Gate of Hell._ - - -MUSEUMS - -Rodin has in the Luxembourg Museum (Paris) the following works:-- - -_The Age of Brass,_ originally placed in the Luxembourg Gardens near -the School of Mines. - -_The Danaid_ (marble). - -_Thought_ (marble). - -_St. John the Baptist Preaching_ (bronze). - -_The Fair Helmet-maker_ (bronze). - -Bust of _Jean Paul Laurens_ (bronze). - -_The Kiss_ (marble). - -Bust of _Mme. V._ (marble). - -At the Petit Palais (Ville de Paris), one work. - -At Beziers, Cognac, Dijon, Douai, Lille, and Lyons, several works. - -At Brussels, one work. - -At Copenhagen, several works. - -At New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, works. At Helsingfors, -one work. - -At Rotterdam, one work. - -At Geneva (Rath Museum), three works. - -At Venice, Christiania, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Düsseldorf, Munich, -Weimar, Vienna, Prague (town hall), one work in each town. - -At Hamburg, three works. - -At Hagen, three works. - -At Berlin (new gallery of Charlottenburg), five works. - -At Crefeld, two works. - -At Buda-Pest, five works. - -In London (Victoria and Albert Museum), two works; (British Museum), -one work. - -At Glasgow, one work. - -Museum of Marseilles, _The Inner Voice_ (clay). - -The new works in these various museums are originals or casts. - - -PRIVATE COLLECTIONS - -M. Vever (_Eve,_ in marble). - -M. Pontremoli (the _National Defence._) - -M. Antony Roux (_The Kiss_). - -M. Roger Marx (bust, _The Young Mother_). - -M. Blanc (_The Eternal Idol._) - -M. Desmarais (the _Idyll._) - -Mme. Durand (_Thought_, in marble, given to the Luxembourg). - -M. Peytel (various groups). - -Mme. Russell (_Minerva._) - -M. Fenaille (_The Spring, Bust of Mme. F., The Poet and the Life of -Contemplation,_ a twisted column with figures, surmounted by a mask). - -Baron Vitta (high-reliefs in stone). - -The Marquise de Carcano (_Head of St. John beheaded,_ marble). - -This, of course, is a very cursory list, and includes only collections -in Paris. - -I must add separately to the works published about Rodin those for -which I am responsible: (1) a study, called "The Art of M. Rodin," -_Revue des Revues,_ 15th June, 1898; this has been approved by the -artist, and very frequently reproduced. (2) A lecture delivered on -the 31st of July, 1900, at the Rodin exhibition, and published by -_La Plume_, with four unpublished drawings. (3) An essay upon the -surroundings, personality, and influence of Rodin, which appeared in -the _Revue Universelle_ in 1901, and has likewise been reprinted, -particularly in the _Maîtres Artistes_ (special number, 15th October, -1903). - -The high price of the work published by Messrs. Goupil (_A Hundred -and Fort-two Drawings by Rodin_) prevents that fine volume from being -accessible to the public. The amateur photographer Druet has taken -photographs of all Rodin's work, which are rather misty, but which -render admirably the caressing touch of light on the main planes, and -which in a measure reproduce the artistic atmosphere of the statues. -Messrs. Haweis and Coles have likewise taken some beautiful and curious -proofs. More classic, but also more definite, are the fine photographs -which the art publisher Buloz has recently taken, and which have been -employed to illustrate this volume. - - -PORTRAITS - -There is a remarkable portrait of Rodin by Mr. John Sargent (dating -from about twenty years ago). Another, by M. Alphonse Legros (a -profile), is more of a fancy head, and wears a sort of tiara. A more -recent portrait has been produced by Mr. Alexander. There is a very -forcible bust by Mile. Camille Claudel, as well as a bust by J. -Desbois, a lithograph by Eugène Carrière, and some amusing studio -sketches by Mile. Cladel. An interesting lithograph of "Rodin in his -Studio," by W. Rothenstein, appeared in the _Artist-Engraver,_ April, -1904. - -A curious photograph, taken by M. Steichen; a poster for the Rodin -exhibition, containing a portrait, and drawn by Carrière; and some -excellent photographs taken at Prague (of which the one here reproduced -is astonishingly faithful) complete this list of likenesses. - - - - -INDEX - - _Achilles, The Education of_ - _Adam_ (destroyed) - _Adonis, The Death of_ - _Age of Brass, The_ - Antiope (of Correggio), The - Antique, The, influence of, on Rodin - Rodin's analysis of - its right use - its truth and beauty - Aphrodite (by Lucien Schnegg) - _Apollo,_ the two reliefs - Aube - _Autumn_ (stone) - _Avarice and Lewdness_ - - _Balzac, Statue of_ - Barrias; his monument to Hugo - Bartholomé - Bartlett - Barye - Bassier, Jean - _Bastien-Lepage, Statue of_ - Baudelaire - Beauvais - _Becque, Henry, Bust of_ - dry-point portraits of - _Bellona_ - _Benedictions, The_ - Bergerat, M., Rodin's drawings for his book - Besnard, Mme. - Boisbaudron, Lecoq de - Boucher, the sculptor - Bourdelle, Emile - _Broken Nose, The Man with the_ - _Brother and Sister_ - Brussels - _Burghers of Calais, The_ - Burgundian sculptors, 38 - Busts, Rodin's portrait, 17, 18, 21, 29, 31, 33, 84 - - Carcano, Marchioness of - Carpeaux - Carrier-Belleuse - Carrière, Eugène - his opinion of Rodin's art - _Caryatid, The_ - Celtic genius, The - Chaplin - Chappe, A statue of - Chapu - Charpentier, Alexandre - Chartres, The cathedral of - _Christ and the Magdalen_ - _Christian Martyr, The_ - Cladel, Mlle. - Classicism, Rodin's - Clodion - Clot, lithographer - _Conqueror, A, holding a Statue of Victory_ - Corneille - Correggio - Costume in sculpture, The question of - Couston - Coysevox - _Crouching Man, The_ - Dalou; Rodin's bust of - Dampt, Jean - _Danaid, The_ - Dante - David of Angers - Devillez - _Day_ - Delacroix - Delaplanche - Desbois - Donatello - Drawings and sketches, Rodin's - _Dream-Group_ - Dry-points, Rodin's - Dubois, Paul - Duhem, Henri - Dujalbert - Dutch painting - - Egyptian sculpture - Eiffel Tower - Emerson quoted - Erotic subjects, Rodin's treatment of - Etchings, Rodin's - _Eternal Idol, The_ - _Eve_ - Exhibited works - Exhibition with Claude Monet, the - - Fagel - Falconet - Falguière - his "Balzac" - Rodin's bust of - _Faun and Nymph - Fauns and Bacchantes_ - _Fenaille, Bust of Mme._ - Fenaille, M.; his edition of - Rodin's drawings - _Fiennes, Jean de,_ - Finish, False notions of - Flemish primitives - Fleurs du Mal, Baudelaire's - Rodin's illustrations to - Florence Baptistery Gates, as model of _The Gate of Hell_ - France, Anatole - _Franck, Medallion of Cæsar_ - Frémiet - Fuller, Loïe - - _Galatea_ - Gallé, Emile - Gallimard, M. - Gardet - _Gate of Hell, The_ - _Genius of War, The_ - Gluck, 105 - Gothic sculptures, Rodin's study of - Goujon - Greek sculpture - Guillaume - - _Hand of God, The_ - _Hecuba_ - _Helmet-maker, The Fair_ - Henley, W. E. - his opinion of Rodin's art - Hokusai - Houdon - _Hugo, Victor, Bust of_ - dry-point portraits of - the _Monument to_ - - _Icarus_ - _Illusion, the Daughter of Icarus_ - _Inferno,_ Dante's - Inspiration - _Iris_ - Italy, Rodin's travels in - - Japanese bronzes and prints, Rodin's admiration of - Jasmin, Clément - Joan of Arc, Rude's - - _Kiss, The_ - - _Labour, Monument to_ - Lamartine - _Laurens, Jean Paul, Bust of_ - Lavoisier, A statue of - Lefèvre, Camille - Legros, Alphonse; bust of - _Lorraine, Claude, The Monument to_ - Louvre, the - _Love and Psyche_ - _Lovers, Groups of_ - Luxembourg, The - _Lynch, Statue of_ - - MacColl, D. S. - _Magdalen, The_ - _Mahomet_ (drawing) - Mallarmé, Stéphane - Manet - _Man Walking_ - _Man with the Broken Nose, The_ (clay head) - (marble) - Marseillaise, Rude's - Marx, Roger - bust of - _Meditation_ - Meudon, Rodin's house and studio at - Michael Angelo - _Minerva_ (helmeted bust) - (marble and silver) - Minne, George - Mirbeau, Octave - bust of - medallion of - Rodin's drawings for his books - Monet, Claude - _Monument to the Defenders of the Nation_ - Morbidezza - _Mother, The Young_ - _Muse of Anger_ - - _Muse of the Inner Voice_ - Museums - - Nancy - Naples Museum - Napoleon Awakening to Immortality, - Rude's - Neo-Greek School, Errors and defects of - _Nereids, The_ - Niederhausern-Rodo - _Night,_ - Nude, The - _Nymph, A,_ - - _Orpheus and Eurydice_ - - Paintings, Rodin's - Pajou - Pantheon, The - _Perseus and the Gorgon_ - Pica, Vittorio - Pigalle - Pilon, Germain - Poe - _Poet and the Life of Contemplation, The_ - _Poets and Muses_ - Préault, Auguste - Private Collections - _Proust, Antonin, Bust of_ - dry-point of - _Psyche_ - Puech, Denys - Puget - Puvis de Chavannes; bust of - monument to - _Pygmalion_ - - Raphael - Redon, Odilon - Rembrandt - Renascence, Rodin's admiration for the, 63-5 - _Rimini, Paolo and Francesca da_ - Rivière, Théodore - _Rochefort, Bust of_ - Roche, Pierre, in - Rodin, Auguste, birth, parentage, and schooling - early art-training - under Barye - works for ornament-maker - in Carrier-Belleuse's studio - early works in sculpture - goes to Brussels; work there - friendship with Legros - takes painting lessons from Lecoq de Boisbaudron - accepted at Salon - accused of casting from life - his first sale - cleared of accusations - sudden emergence from obscurity - slow development - attitude to academic art - his originality and power noticed - studios granted him by Government - works at Sèvres - his stay in Brussels a formative time - deeply impressed by Dante and Baudelaire (and see under these names) - monument to Hugo described - impatience of officialism - _Gate of Hell_ described - exhibition with Claude Monet in 1889 - monument to Claude Lorraine described - _Burghers of Calais_ described - friendship with M. Fenaille - the _Balzac_ and the controversy it excited - visits to Italy; articles - in the _Musée_ quoted at length - at the Paris Exhibition of 1900 - visit to Prague, 84; welcomed in London - elected President of the International Society - honours - personal appearance - portraits of him - private life and home - house and studios - tastes - travels - as a talker - social opinions - influence - friends and pupils - characteristics of his art - artistic descent and affinities - place in the French school - lost works - paintings - dry-points - drawings and treatment of voluptuous subjects - photographs of his works - essentially a poet; as thinker - classicism, his - his symbolism - his composition - his conception of his art analysed - fondness for small groups - his treatment of costume - his treatment of flesh - his principles of portraiture - his endeavour to give atmosphere - his works treated to be viewed from all sides - his modelling - his study and power of representing movement - dynamic character of his art - his synthetic power - his veracity - his favourite type of woman, 42; - influence and value of the antique - _Ronde, The_ (dry-point) - Rops - Rosso - Rousseau - Rubens - Rude - - _St. John Baptist_ - _St. John Baptist_ (torso) - _St. John, Head of the Beheaded_ (marble) - Saint Marceaux - _St. Pierre, Eustacede_ - Salon, the - _Sappho_ - Sargent - _Sarmiento, Monument to President_ - Schnegg, Gaston and Lucien - _Séverine, Bust of Madame_ - Sèvres - _Shades, The_ - Société des Gens de Lettres - _Spring, Eternal_ - _Spring_ - _Summer_ - - Tanagra figures - _Thinker, The_ - Thomas - _Thought,_ - _Torso_ (nude female bronze) - Turquet - - _Ugolino_ - (drawing) - - Values in painting and sculpture - Van der Meer - Van Rasbourg - _Venus and Adonis_ - _Vicunha, Monument to the President_ - Villon - - Wagner, 119, 120 - Watteau, 81 - _Wave, The_ - Whistler - _Wissant, Jacques and Pierre de_ - _Woman, Bust of_ - _Woman, Bust of a Young_ - _Woman, Bust of a Young_ (silver) - _Women and Children_ - _Women Bathing_ - _Women Damned_ - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Auguste Rodin, by Camille Mauclair - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 50665 *** |