Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) was deeply influenced by the long-established tradition of sculpture dating back to antiquity, yet he rebelled against its idealized forms and restrained expression creating works of art that render powerful emotions and capture the human form in motion.
Over the course of a career that spanned more than four decades, he developed practices that questioned the conventions of classical sculpture. He embraced the visible traces of his works’ creation, recombined his own fragments and figures, and redefined sculpture as always in flux and never finished. Rodin believed that art should be true to nature, a philosophy that shaped his attitudes to both his models and his materials.
Rodin was working at a time when many artists were breaking with the official academic tradition. He was a contemporary of Monet and spent time with Impressionist artists whose work had similar concerns. The Impressionists preferred everyday subject matter, they created works with visible brush strokes, and they strove to capture a sense of movement and the natural depiction of light—all qualities that had analogies in Rodin’s sculpture.
This exhibition is organized thematically, looking at Rodin’s approach to classicism, the body, portraiture, and a deep dive into his process. Three of his major public commissions are highlighted: The Gates of Hell, The Burghers of Calais, and the Monument to Honoré de Balzac. Throughout, Rodin’s works are displayed alongside those of his predecessors and contemporaries, showing the artistic context from which his art emerged in its revolutionary form.
