Rodin

Rodin (November 12, 1840–November 17, 1917) was a French artist, most famous as a sculptor. 

He was the preeminent French sculptor of his time, and remains one of the few sculptors widely recognized outside the visual arts community. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past. He was schooled traditionally, took a craftsman-like approach to his work, and desired academic recognition, although he was never accepted into Paris's foremost school of art. Sculpturally, he possessed a unique ability to model a complex, turbulent, deeply pocketed surface in clay.

Many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime. They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. 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. Rodin was sensitive to the controversy about his work, but did not change his style, and successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.

Two of his most notable sculptures are The Thinker and The Kiss. 

The Thinker depicts a man in sober meditation battling with a powerful internal struggle. It is often used to represent philosophy. Rodin made a first small plaster version around 1880. The first large-scale bronze cast was finished in 1902, but not presented to the public until 1904. It became the property of the city of Paris – thanks to a subscription organized by Rodin admirers – and was put in front of the Panthéon in 1906. In 1922, it was moved to theHôtel Biron, which was transformed into a Rodin Museum.

The sculpture, The Kiss, was originally titled Francesca da Rimini, as it depicts the 13th-century Italian noblewoman immortalised in Dante's Inferno who falls in love with her husband Giovanni Malatesta's younger brother Paolo. When critics first saw the sculpture in 1887, they suggested the less specific title Le Baiser (The Kiss).In 1888, the French government ordered the first large-scale marble version of The Kiss from Rodin for the 1889 Exhibition Universelle, but it was publicly displayed for the first time in the Salon de la Société National des Beaux-Arts in 1898. It was so popular that the company Barbedienne offered Rodin a contract to produce a limited number of smaller copies in bronze. In 1900 the statue was moved to the Musée du Luxembourg before being taken to its current location, the Musée Rodin, in 1918.

*Quiz*

1. What are Rodins two most notable sculptures?

     2.  When was the first plaster version of The Think made?

   a) 1680 b) 1780 c) 1880 d) 2008

     3.  The sculpture, The Kiss, was originally titled Francesca da Rimini.

   a) True b) False

     4.  Rodin first began studying artwork seriously, at what age?

  a) 10 b) 47 c) 52 d) 65

     5.  In what year was Rodin born?

  a) 1760     b) 1970 c) 1800     d) 1840