A progenitor of modern sculpture from France.
model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay Rodin’s most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality.
Instead of representing gods or muses, he sculpted lifelike figures in distinctly modern attitudes of love, thought, and proud physicality.
The Kiss (c.1884)
The Thinker (1880)
There are about 28 full size castings, in which the figure is about 186 centimeters (73 in) high, though not all were made during Rodin’s lifetime and under his supervision; as well as various other versions, several in plaster, studies, and posthumous castings, in a range of sizes.
Although The Gates of Hell was never completed to Rodin’s satisfaction in his own lifetime, his work on the project did inspire many other finished works, and The Thinker is the most famous example. Deriving from a figure at the top of the sculpture who gazes with melancholy over the hellish scenes below him, he represents Dante, the author of the Divine Comedy that inspired The Gates of Hell (1899).
The Gates of Hell (1899)
Rodin labored on this mammoth project for over twenty years. It was commissioned in 1880 as a set of doors for the planned Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris, but the museum never came to be, and he never finished the sculpture to his satisfaction.
The museum, currently located in the center of Paris, has works of Rodin donated by himself to French government in exchange to his mansion.
It was also rent out to artists like Henri Matisse as a working studio back in the 19th century. In this museum, no explanation of work or introduction is present and it seems to encourage you to have a more intimate feeling with the bronzes.
Many of his human sculptures are also displayed outside in the garden, which some could argue is a better place for them.
