Auguste Rodin is a genius French sculptor of the 19th century. Rodin is considered one of the founders of impressionism in sculpture. The most famous creations of Auguste Rodin are the sculptures The Thinker, The Gates of Hell, The Kiss and Citizens of Calais.
early years
Francois Auguste Rene Rodin (full name of the sculptor) was born on November 12, 1840 in Paris (France). Auguste grew up in a family very far from art. His father, Jean-Baptiste Rodin, was an ordinary employee in the prefecture. Auguste's mother, Marie Schaeffer, was Jean-Baptiste's second wife and worked as a maid. The boy had a half-sister, Marie, two years older than him.
From childhood, the boy showed the ability to draw. All the time Auguste was drawing something with charcoal on paper or drawing with chalk on the pavement. He did not show much interest in studying at school.
Despite his father's resistance, young Auguste at the age of 14 entered the École Gratuite de Dessin school of drawing, where he successfully studied from 1854 to 1857. Rodin's teacher was the then famous painter Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran.
This teacher used a drawing technique aimed at shaping the visual memory of young artists. When making a drawing, one had to remember the nature, examining it for several minutes, and then draw from memory. Thanks to this skill, the future sculptor could remember and then reproduce the image of nature with the smallest details.
Young Auguste went to the Louvre Museum to copy antique sculptures. He also often visited exhibitions of impressionist artists, becoming close to some of them. In the future, this was reflected in the formation of his work. After completing his studies, the young man tried three times to enter the School of Fine Arts, but to no avail.
When Rodin turned 21, he had to earn a living on his own to support his family, as his father retired, which was not enough for everyone.
Rodin worked as an apprentice, decorator, sculptor's assistant. Sometimes he managed to attend courses at the Museum of Natural History, which were taught by the sculptor Antoine Bari.
In 1862, Marie, Rodin's beloved sister, dies. Her death was a real shock for Auguste, he even decided to quit sculpture and take monastic vows. Rodin became a novice in the monastery of the priest Pierre Eymar, who persuaded him to return to worldly life and not give up his art studies. Rodin returned to sculpture and, in gratitude to Pierre Eymar, sculpted his bust in 1863.
Creation
Rodin worked hard and was soon able to buy a workshop that had previously been a stable. It was very cold and damp in it, so many of the master's creations have not survived. In 1864, a sculptor sculpted a bust of a local resident named Bibi. He had a very interesting face with a broken nose. The bust kept in the workshop cracked from severe frosts, but Auguste sent the sculpture to the Paris Salon anyway. Sadly, The Man with the Broken Nose was rejected because he defied the classic canons of beauty with his scarred and wrinkled face. Soon the Franco-Prussian war began, Rodin was drafted into the army, but was discharged due to poor eyesight.
In 1864 Auguste moved to Brussels. In Brussels, Rodin created several sculptures: for the building of the stock exchange, for private houses, as well as figures for the monument to Burgomaster Loos.
Rodin managed to accumulate a large sum of money in order to fulfill his dream in 1876 - a trip to Italy. He really wanted to see with his own eyes the works of the great Italian masters of the Renaissance. According to Auguste Rodin, Michelangelo's sculptures made a huge impression on him. Returning to France after a year and a half, Rodin, inspired by the works of the great Florentine, sculpted the sculpture "Bronze Age".
In 1880, Auguste Rodin was commissioned to fulfill a state order. He needed to sculpt a sculptural portal for the building of the new Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. Rodin did not have time to complete this work on time, by 1885. Despite the fact that the opening of the museum did not take place, Rodin did not stop working on the sculpture called "The Gates of Hell". Unfortunately, the work remained unfinished. Only after the death of the master, the "Gates of Hell" were cast in bronze.
"The Gates of Hell" is one of the main works of Rodin, it is a sculptural composition seven meters high and contains 186 figures. Many of these figures, such as "The Kiss", "Fleeting Love", as well as "Adam" and "Eve" removed from the general composition, have become independent works. The sculpture "The Thinker", which became the most famous and recognizable creation by Rodin, was created as a portrait of Dante Alighieri - the author of the "Divine Comedy", from which Auguste Rodin borrowed images for his sculptures.
Further famous works by Rodin were such works: a bust of Victor Hugo; sculpture "Eternal Idol"; sculptural group "Citizens of Calais"; monument to Honore de Balzac.
Personal life
Throughout his life, Rodin's companion was the seamstress Rosa Børe. Their marriage was not officially registered, therefore, when a son was born to Auguste and Rosa, he began to bear his mother's surname.
At 43, Rodin began a romantic relationship with nineteen-year-old student Camilla Claudel, who dreamed of becoming a sculptor. Soon Camilla became Rodin's student, assistant and model. The girl was madly in love with her teacher. Their relationship with Camilla lasted nine years, but Rodin did not abandon Rosa. And when their relationship exhausted itself, Camille Claudel suffered a severe nervous shock, ended up in a psychiatric hospital, where she lived until the end of her life.
On January 19, 1917, almost a year before his death, Rodin decided to legalize his relationship with Rosa. She did not live after their wedding and a month, since at that time she was already seriously ill. Rodin died on November 17, 1917 from pneumonia. A copy of the Thinker sculpture was erected on the tombstone of the great master.
