Auguste Rodin (1840–1917,) fully François-Auguste-René Rodin, was a French sculptor of beautiful bronze and marble figures. Considered one of the greatest portraitists in the history of sculpture, he was chiefly concerned with the human form.
Born in Paris, Rodin made three unsuccessful attempts to enter the École des Beaux-Arts. His first significant work is L’Homme au nez cassé (1864, ‘The Man with the Broken Nose.’) He then worked in Paris and Brussels until 1875 under the sculptors Antoine Barye and Carrier-Belleuse, and with Van Rasbourg, with whom he collaborated in some of the decorations for the Brussels Bourse.
In 1875, Rodin traveled to Italy and France. He was inspired by Donatello, Michelangelo, and others, the Gothic cathedrals, and the current trend of Romanticism. In 1877, he exhibited anonymously at the Paris Salon L’age d’airain (‘The Age of Bronze,’) which aroused controversy because of its realism. He later produced Saint Jean Baptiste (1879, ‘St John the Baptist.’) His ‘The Gates of Hell,’ commissioned in 1880 for the future Museum of the Decorative Arts in Paris, remained unfinished at his death but resulted in two of Rodin’s most famous images: ‘The Thinker’ and ‘The Kiss.’
Rodin’s portraits include monumental figures of Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Madame Rodin, Jules Bastien-Lepage, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, and George Bernard Shaw. His works are represented in the Musee Rodin-Paris, Rodin Museum-Philadelphia, and Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
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I choose a block of marble and chop off whatever I don’t need.
—Auguste Rodin
Topics: Artists, Arts, Art
To the artist there is never anything ugly in nature.
—Auguste Rodin
Topics: The Artist
The realities of nature surpass our most ambitious dreams.
—Auguste Rodin
Topics: Reality
I invent nothing, I rediscover.
—Auguste Rodin
Topics: Originality, Discovery
Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.
—Auguste Rodin
Topics: Failures, Attitude, Wise, Experience, Mistakes, Perception, Time, Time Management
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