Rodin Exhibit at the Clark

 

RODIN IN THE UNITED STATES

Clark Art Institute

Williamstown, MA through September 18, 2022

 

The Prodigal Son

 

 

Even those who know little about art recognize the name Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), a candidate for the most-famous sculptor in Western art history. Few indeed are those who don’t know The Thinker, a work so popular that it has been recast full size at least 50 times. A new exhibit at the Clark is devoted to works of Rodin in the United States. (He was French, in case you don’t know.)

 

I’m a great admirer of Rodin’s work and have been to numerous shows of his work, as well as Rodin museums in both Philadelphia and Paris. The Clark show is ostensibly linked to American collectors, art historians, and critics who advanced Rodin’s reputation in North America. My guess is that very few attendees will pay much attention to that and will gravitate to the sculptures.

 

The show’s subtheme, “Confronting the Modern” is more of a lure. Rodin was modern in the sense that he did not endlessly copy ancient and classical works. That’s probably because he grew up working class and was not accepted by the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where copying or doing variations of such works was all the rage. Rodin drew inspiration from the ancients and drew upon classical themes, but he was seldom a copyist. He was especially drawn to Dante’s The Divine Comedy, for instance, but imagined scenes from it.  

 

 

Camille Claudel Bust of  Rodin

 

Rodin was a Roman Catholic and sculpted religious scenes, but his faith did not curb his voracious sexual appetite. He had a lifetime lover/partner named Rose Beuret, but he routinely had affairs with his models and students. Perhaps his most famous conquest was Camille Claudel, whom he mentored and bedded. She later became a competitor and a renowned sculptress in her own right. One of her heralded works, which is included in the show, is—you guessed it—Bust of Rodin (1887).  

 

The Hand of God

 

 

Most visitors will be surprised to learn that Rodin did not sculpt any of his works in marble. He worked by beginning with a quick sketch of his idea. Framed images of these will surprise; Rodin was either in a hurry or not very good at drawing. From these rough sketches he shaped clay models. If the work was to be cast in bronze, the clay was used to produce a plaster cast, which was then sent to the foundry and filled with molten metal. The marble works, though, were farmed out to others, including Albert Ernest Carrier-Belleuse, who was noted for his silky smooth surfaces. If this strikes you are odd and you wonder why Rodin is the “sculptor” of works he didn’t chisel, know that this was common practice in 19^th century art. Many famed photographers (including Matthew Brady), for example, did not actually snap the images that bear their name. They produced the image in the darkroom and the person behind the lens was a mere “operator.” 

 

The Benedictions

John the Baptist

Mask of a Man with a Broken Nose

 

 

The Clark show contains many notable Rodin works—including The Thinker­—but let’s look at some other works. Rodin’s Catholicism is on display in pieces such as St. John the Baptist, The Prodigal Son, The Hand of God, and The Benedictions. So too is Ms. Claudel; she was the model for Thought. A bust of Arthur Eddy is modern in terms of subject matter; Eddy looks nerdy and studious. Although it appears classical at a glance, note the righthand turn in the schnoz of Man with a Broken Nose. A bronze work titled Hanako, the stage name of a Japanese actress, is decidedly non-classical and is consonant with the Orientalist fascination of numerous late 19^th century Western artists. 

 

Bust of Arthur Jerome Eddy

Thought

Hanako

 

 

A few other surprises include a terracotta study for Rodin’s famed statue of Balzac and a small singular burgher that was later a larger figure in The Burghers of Calais. The latter was made to immortalize the town fathers who sacrificed themselves and saved Calais residents in 1347 by surrendering to the English during the Hundred Years War. This figure is small because The Burghers of Calais was originally supposed to be incorporated into the work many call Rodin’s masterpiece, his gigantic The Gates of Hell (from Dante’s Inferno). That work is way too big and heavy to transport, but I admired the small figure for allowing me to see more detail than one can see in the nearly eight-foot tall Burghers ensemble. 

 

Balzac Study

 

Burgher

 

You only have another month to catch this show and I recommend you do. You can also see another, which is the subject of my next blog post.

 

Rob Weir