Rodin, Auguste

SCULPTOR (FRANCE)
BORN 12 Nov 1840, Paris - DIED 17 Nov 1917, Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine
GRAVE LOCATION Meudon, Hauts-de-Seine: Musée Rodin, 19 Avenue Auguste Rodin (in the garden)

Auguste Rodin entered the École Impériale de Dessin, a goverment school, at fourteen. Afterwards he was refused three times at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1864 he met the seamstress 1864 and she became a companion for life and the mother of his only son. Rodin did decorative stonework for Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and in 1875 travelled to Italy to study the work of Michelangelo. Back in France he exhibited "The Age of Bronze" at the Salon of 1877. This caused a scandal, because critics accused Rodin of using a casting of a live model to reach such a realistic effect.

He continued to shock the academic world with his revolutionary sculptures and made up his own rules. His "Monument to Balzac" was scorned at and this caused Rodin a lot of pain. Fortunately there were admirers as well and in 1900 he was a very famous and well respected artist, who received many commissions for portraits and public monuments.

Rodin was involved in several love affairs and he married Rose Beuret only seventeen days before his death. In 1919 the Hôtel Byron (Paris) was turned into a Rodin Museum. Another Rodin museum can be found at Meudon, where the artist was buried as well.

Works: "The Burghers of Calais" (1884-1889); "The Thinker"; "The Kiss"; "The Monument to Balzac" (1891-1897); "The Gates of Hell" (1800-c.1900).

Related persons
• influenced Angst, Carl Albert
• has a connection with Béraud, Jean
• employed Bourdelle, Antoine
• was a friend of Bouré, Félix
• designed grave monument of Carrier-Belleuse, Albert-Ernest
• was a friend of Carrière, Eugène
• was painted by Carrière, Eugène
• was a friend of Duncan, Isadora
• was a friend of Hauptmann, Ivo
• made a sculpture of Nijinski, Vaslav
• was painted by Sargent, John Singer
• made a sculpture of Vivien, Reneé
• was teacher of Zambaco, Maria

Images

'Andrieu d'Andrès'.
(1884-1886)
Picture by Pat/Androom (Jun 1998)

 

'L'homme qui marche'.
(1905)
Picture by Pat/Androom (Jun 1998)

 

Bust of Renée Vivien at the Musée Rodin in Paris.
Picture by Androom (23 May 1999)

 

"The Kiss" by Auguste Rodin at the Tate Gallery in London.
Picture by androom (14 Aug 1997)

 

"The Gates of Hell" at the Musée Rodin in Paris.
Picture by Androom (23 May 1999)

 

Sources
• Cullen, Catherine, Paris, The Woman's Travel Guide, Virago Press, London, 1993
WebMuseum: Rodin, Auguste


Roeder, Max

Published: 01 Jan 2006
Last update: 25 Apr 2022