Part 8

[1] A vehement but indiscriminating critic, M. Octave Mirbeau, has seen good to write, by way of affirming that Rodin's art moved him strongly: "A style takes rise from him." I have neither the space nor the wish to recriminate; but it would be dangerous to let such artistic heresies pass without protest. Rodin is an admirable example, but to say that a style arises from him is to say that he may become the creator of a perishable formula, and to understand nothing about his art.

[2] Some surprise may be felt at my having failed to insist upon the name of Michael Angelo. Everybody has hit upon the obvious comparison. It is the exceeding obviousness that leads me to distrust it. Rodin is much nearer to Puget than to Michael Angelo, who is muscular strength carried to heroic proportions. Rodin, like Puget, and more than Puget, is nervous strength. Rodin appears much more akin to Michael Angelo than he really is. Careful study causes us more and more to leave behind that preliminary likeness which has sufficed so many critics.

[3] We might perhaps say the same in regard to the great Carpeaux, too, who carried the art of movement and expression to so high a degree, and who did the same liberal work against the "École" as Rodin was to do at a later time. But their visions, aims, and minds differ profoundly.

VI

APPENDIX--CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF RODIN'S PRINCIPAL WORKS--LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS OR ARTICLES WRITTEN ABOUT HIM--QUOTATIONS REFERRING TO HIM--AN OPINION OF EUGÈNE CARRIÈRE'S; AN OPINION OF HENLEY'S--VARIOUS NOTES

Chronological catalogue of Rodin's works is almost impossible to draw up. I do not think Rodin himself could do it. It must be remembered that before 1877 he made a quantity of studies which he destroyed, and such a producer as he is willing to neglect things of which others would keep count. In his poor and wandering days Rodin must have abandoned many things. How would it be possible to recount the figures that were retouched or even executed at Carrier-Belleuse's, the earliest independent works, the characters executed by him at Brussels, the statues that were planned and left unfinished for lack of money, those that were broken or that failed--all the immense store of work accomplished in the course of twenty years by a man who worked every day? How would it be possible even to enumerate the sketches and varied renderings of different subjects piled up in the studio at Meudon, in the Clos Payen, in the Rue des Fourneaux, and at Vaugirard? It is a whole world. I will confine myself, therefore, to a statement of known and exhibited works: and these, indeed, are what is essential.

LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL EXHIBITED WORKS

1864. _The Man with a Broken Nose._

1865-70. Works in the studio of Carrier-Belleuse.

1872-77. Friezes upon the Bourse and various works at Brussels.

1877. _The Primitive Man (The Age of Brass)._ Decorative work on the Trocadéro.

1878-80. _Saint Jerome. Saint John the Baptist._ Works in the manufactory of Sèvres. Competition for the National Defence Monument.

1881. _Adam_ (destroyed). _Eve._

1882. _Ugolino_ (a sketch taken up again later). Busts of _Alphonse Legros_ and _IV. E. Henley._ Studies for _The Gate of Hell._

1883. _Bellona. General Lynch_ (equestrian statue). _The Genius of War._

1884. Monument of _President Vicunha. Bust of a Young Woman._

1885. _The Man and the Serpent._ Busts of _Dalou, Hugo,_ and _Antonin Proust._

1886. First sketch of the Hugo monument. Drawings dealing with _The Gate of Hell._ Bust of _Henry Becque. The Kiss_ (a small group).

1887. _Perseus and the Gorgon. Head of St. John beheaded._

1888. _The Danaid. Alan Walking._ Nude study for one of the _Burghers of Calais._ Several little groups.

1889. Studies for the _Gate of Hell_ and the monument to _Claude Lorraine. Torso of a Woman._ Group of _The Dream. The Dream of Life. Women Damned_ (in marble). _Hecuba._ Bust of _Roger Marx. Destitution. Thought_ (in marble).

1890. _Bust of a Young Woman_ (in silver). _Torso of Saint John. Brother and Sister._

1891. _The Caryatid. The Young Mother. A Nymph._

1892. Busts of _Puvis de Chavannes_ and _Henri Rochefort. Grief. Claude Lorraine. The Burghers of Calais._

1893. _The Death of Adonis._ Medallion of _César Franck. Galatea._ Bust of _Séverine. The Crest and the Wave. Resurrection. The Child Achilles_ (group in clay).

1894. _Eternal Spring. Hope_ (a reclining figure in back view.) _Orpheus and Eurydice_ (first version). _Christ and Magdalen._

1895. Inauguration of _The Burghers of Calais. Illusion,_ the _Daughter of Icarus._ Medallion of _Octave Mirbeau._ Nude studies for the _Balzac. Man Crouching._

1896. _The Inner Voice. The Muse of Anger_ (for the Hugo monument). _The Conqueror. Minerva. The Poet and the Life of Contemplation. Women Bathing._ Studies for the _Balzac._

1897. _Victor Hugo. Balzac._ Monument of _President_ _Sarmiento._

1898. Statue of _Balzac._ Bust of a _Young American._ Bust of _Madame F._ Statue of _Sarmiento,_ with a high relief of Apollo in marble. Monument of _Labour. The Benedictions_ (marble). _Twilight. Clouds._ _The Parcæ and the Young Girl._

1899. Works for the Hugo monument.

1900. Marble groups. Exhibition at the Rond-point de l'Alma.

1901. _Shades_ (for _The Gate of Hell)._

1902. Groups in marble. _The Hand of God._ Busts.

1903. Bust of _Hugo. The Poet and the Muse._ Various sketches. _Ugolino_ (fresh version). _The Prodigal Son._

1904. _The Thinker_, and various works in marble in process of execution.[1]

The work of Rodin may thus be estimated at about ten works on a grand scale, forty groups or statues, some thirty important busts, and perhaps two hundred figures or portraits, without counting sketches, from 1877 to 1904.

I come now to the mention of some significant writings that deal with his aesthetic theory or with his work; and, as may be supposed, I leave out of question a quantity of valueless articles, for Rodin has been directly or indirectly the pretext for a great mass of writings, and is the modern French artist who has been most talked of, justly or unjustly. The works quoted are such as may be consulted with advantage.

[1] To these may be added, in 1905, a bust of the Rt. Hon. _George Wyndham_, and _The Hand of God._

ARTICLES OR BOOKS RELATING TO RODIN

"Balzac and Rodin," by Roger Marx (_Le Voltaire,_ March, 1892).

"Claude Lorraine," by Roger Marx (_Le Voltaire,_ June, 1892). (Excellent studies in the criticism of sculpture.)

"Auguste Rodin," by Roger Marx (_Pan,_ and _The Image,_ September, 1897).

Drawings by Rodin, 129 plates, containing 142 heliogravures (Goupil and Co., 1897), from the suggestions and loans of M. Fenaille.

"Rodin's Studio," by Edouard Rod (_Gazette des Beaux Arts,_ May, 1898).

"Rodin," by Gabriel Mourey (_Revue illustrée,_ October, 1899)

_Exhibition of 1900: Rodin's Works,_ with four prefaces by Eugène Carrière, Jean Paul Laurens, Claude Monet, and Albert Besnard.

"Rodin and Legros," by Arsène Alexandre (_Figaro,_ June, 1900).

"The Gate of Hell," by Anatole France (_Figaro,_ June 1st, 1900).

_La Revue des Beaux Arts et des Lettres,_ January 1st, 1900.

_La Plume,_ 1900. Special number.

_Les Maîtres Artistes,_ special number, October 15th, 1903. (Illustrated collections, containing a certain number of critical studies by various authors.)

_Rodin,_ by Léon Riotor: a pamphlet, reproducing in French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, and Russian, a study that appeared in the _Revue populaire des Beaux Arts,_ April 8th, 1899.

_Rodin, the Sculptor,_ a volume of criticism, illustrated; by Léon Maillard (Floury); 1899.

_The Sculptor Rodin, drawn from life._ A volume by Mlle. Judith Cladel (_La Plume_ office, 1903).

_Rodin,_ a study by L. Brieger-Wasser (Vogel. Strassburg; 1903).

_Rodin,_ by George Treu (_Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst._ Berlin, Marstersteig, 1903).

_Rodin,_ by R. M. Rilke (Berlin, Bard, 1903).

"Rodin." Articles upon, by W. E. Henley, 1890; D. S. MacColl, 1902; Henri Duhem, 1890; Karel B. Made (Prague); Vittorio Pica (Rome).

Of these various writings devoted to Rodin, those of Roger Marx should be particularly noted, on account of their technical understanding; Léon Maillard's volume is a sincere, well-informed, well-illustrated book, produced by a man who comprehends. The book by Mlle. Judith Cladel, daughter of the distinguished novelist, is an originally conceived volume, the only one that relates certain conversations, and attempts, with charming acuteness, to present Rodin in his private character. It is a work that deserves to be much better known and appreciated, and of which Rodin's first panegyrists, jealous of being the only "inventors" of the artist, have been very careful not to speak. The article by the graceful painter, Henri Duhem, is likewise excellent; and I consider Mr. MacColl's very remarkable, on account of its elevation and precision of judgment. The others have such value as belongs to admiring articles written hurriedly in newspapers: they express sympathetic feelings, or comment in a poetical way upon the subjects, but their critical value is négligeable, and there is nothing to be quoted from them for the information of my readers. The _Balzac_ gave rise to a shoal of newspaper articles. Georges, Rodenbach, and France, on that occasion, said the acute and witty thing's about Rodin that they say about all manifestations of thought, and M. Mirbeau made Rodin the theme of some of those polemical variations, conjoining hyperbolical praise with abuse of his adversaries, which he is accustomed to offer as art-criticisms, and which have gained him a reputation of a certain kind. There is nothing to note in these pamphlets mixed with eulogistic effusions, the whole of which do not contain the substance of twenty lines by Henley or of Eugène Carrière's admirable Preface, which I am desirous of reproducing here because it is a masterpiece of synthetic divination.[1]

[1] Preface to the Catalogue of the Rodin exhibition in the Pavillon de l'Alma, 1900. (The work mentioned above; other prefaces by Claude Monet, A. Besnard, and J. P. Laurens.)

"THE ART OF RODIN

"Rodin's art comes from the earth and returns to it, like those giant blocks--rocks or dolmens--which mark deserts, and in the heroic grandeur of which man recognises himself.

"The transmission of thought by art, like the transmission of life, is the work of passion and of love.

"Passion, whose obedient servant Rodin is, makes him discover the laws that serve to express it; she it is that gives him the sense of volumes and proportions, the choice of the expressive prominence.

"Thus the earth projects external apparent forms, images, and statues that fill us with a sense of its internal life.

"These terrestrial forms were the real guides of Rodin. They have set him free from scholastic traditions, in them he found his being and the creative instinct of men whom humanity celebrates.

"Trees and plants revealed to him their likeness to those fair women, with sleek limbs rising, like delicate columns, to the moving torso and swelling breast, above which the head hangs heavily in the company of a strong and supple neck, even as a fine fruit full of savour weighs down its branch.

"The massive brow overshadows the eyes, and the cheek brings the lip softly to the lover's entreaty.

"Forms seek and meet in voluptuous desires of violence and of resignation, rebellious and obedient to laws from which nothing escapes; everywhere conscious logic triumphs.

"The generalising spirit of Rodin has imposed solitude upon him. It has not been his lot to work upon the cathedral that is not, but his desire of humanity links him to the eternal forms of nature."

After such a passage, in which every word is significant and eloquent, and is a great artist's reflection, everything seems pale. I will not, however, confine myself to a mere dry mention of the essay by Vittorio Pica, the great Italian critic, who generously arranged for Rodin's participation in the Venetian Exhibition (Gallery of Modern Art, 1897), and I should have liked to quote Anatole France's fine article, and some assertions of Mr. MacColl's, who very logically recalls to our memory the sculptor Auguste Préault, who is too much forgotten, and who was, indeed, a sort of imperfect precursor of Rodin. I must at least transcribe a few lines from W. E. Henley, who was, from the very beginning, a clear-sighted admirer of Rodin, and who spoke of him with eloquence and passion:--

"M. Dalou ... has declared that when the century goes out it will remember the aforesaid doors" (i.e. _The Gate of Hell_) "as its heroic achievement in sculpture. And if that be true--as I believe it to be true--then where, between himself and Michael Angelo, is there so lofty a head as Rodin's?... His busts alone were enough to place him in the future, the style of them is so complete, the treatment so large and so distinguished, the effect so personal, yet so absolute in art.... Here, if you will, are a thousand hints of the possibilities of human passion: from Paolo and Francesca melting into each other:

"'La bocca mi bacio tutta tremante'

as no man and woman have done in sculpture since sculpture began.... Here is sculpture in its essence.... You may read into it as much literature as you please, or as you can; but the interpolation is not Rodin's, but your own.... It is not literature in relief, nor literature in the round; it is sculpture pure and simple.... Passion is with him wholly a matter of form and surface and line, and exists not apart from these.... He is our Michael Angelo; and if he had not been that, he might have been our Donatello. And with Phidias and Lysippus all these some-and-twenty centuries afar, what more is left to say of the man of genius whose art is theirs?"

We see that Henley's admiration returns to the comparison of Michael Angelo and Rodin. I persist in thinking that the resemblance rather lies in moral identity, in conception than in technicalities. The muscular enlargement of the Italian hero is not Rodin's amplification nor his expressiveness, _which is altogether nervous._ It is none the less true that these two men are the only ones who have imagined and realised a sculpturesque conception of so vast a reach. Not even Puget and Rude, who came between them, ventured such wholes as _The Tomb of the Medici_ or _The Gate of Hell._

MUSEUMS

Rodin has in the Luxembourg Museum (Paris) the following works:--

_The Age of Brass,_ originally placed in the Luxembourg Gardens near the School of Mines.

_The Danaid_ (marble).

_Thought_ (marble).

_St. John the Baptist Preaching_ (bronze).

_The Fair Helmet-maker_ (bronze).

Bust of _Jean Paul Laurens_ (bronze).

_The Kiss_ (marble).

Bust of _Mme. V._ (marble).

At the Petit Palais (Ville de Paris), one work.

At Beziers, Cognac, Dijon, Douai, Lille, and Lyons, several works.

At Brussels, one work.

At Copenhagen, several works.

At New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia, works. At Helsingfors, one work.

At Rotterdam, one work.

At Geneva (Rath Museum), three works.

At Venice, Christiania, St. Petersburg, Stockholm, Düsseldorf, Munich, Weimar, Vienna, Prague (town hall), one work in each town.

At Hamburg, three works.

At Hagen, three works.

At Berlin (new gallery of Charlottenburg), five works.

At Crefeld, two works.

At Buda-Pest, five works.

In London (Victoria and Albert Museum), two works; (British Museum), one work.

At Glasgow, one work.

Museum of Marseilles, _The Inner Voice_ (clay).

The new works in these various museums are originals or casts.

PRIVATE COLLECTIONS

M. Vever (_Eve,_ in marble).

M. Pontremoli (the _National Defence._)

M. Antony Roux (_The Kiss_).

M. Roger Marx (bust, _The Young Mother_).

M. Blanc (_The Eternal Idol._)

M. Desmarais (the _Idyll._)

Mme. Durand (_Thought_, in marble, given to the Luxembourg).

M. Peytel (various groups).

Mme. Russell (_Minerva._)

M. Fenaille (_The Spring, Bust of Mme. F., The Poet and the Life of Contemplation,_ a twisted column with figures, surmounted by a mask).

Baron Vitta (high-reliefs in stone).

The Marquise de Carcano (_Head of St. John beheaded,_ marble).

This, of course, is a very cursory list, and includes only collections in Paris.

I must add separately to the works published about Rodin those for which I am responsible: (1) a study, called "The Art of M. Rodin," _Revue des Revues,_ 15th June, 1898; this has been approved by the artist, and very frequently reproduced. (2) A lecture delivered on the 31st of July, 1900, at the Rodin exhibition, and published by _La Plume_, with four unpublished drawings. (3) An essay upon the surroundings, personality, and influence of Rodin, which appeared in the _Revue Universelle_ in 1901, and has likewise been reprinted, particularly in the _Maîtres Artistes_ (special number, 15th October, 1903).

The high price of the work published by Messrs. Goupil (_A Hundred and Fort-two Drawings by Rodin_) prevents that fine volume from being accessible to the public. The amateur photographer Druet has taken photographs of all Rodin's work, which are rather misty, but which render admirably the caressing touch of light on the main planes, and which in a measure reproduce the artistic atmosphere of the statues. Messrs. Haweis and Coles have likewise taken some beautiful and curious proofs. More classic, but also more definite, are the fine photographs which the art publisher Buloz has recently taken, and which have been employed to illustrate this volume.

PORTRAITS

There is a remarkable portrait of Rodin by Mr. John Sargent (dating from about twenty years ago). Another, by M. Alphonse Legros (a profile), is more of a fancy head, and wears a sort of tiara. A more recent portrait has been produced by Mr. Alexander. There is a very forcible bust by Mile. Camille Claudel, as well as a bust by J. Desbois, a lithograph by Eugène Carrière, and some amusing studio sketches by Mile. Cladel. An interesting lithograph of "Rodin in his Studio," by W. Rothenstein, appeared in the _Artist-Engraver,_ April, 1904.

A curious photograph, taken by M. Steichen; a poster for the Rodin exhibition, containing a portrait, and drawn by Carrière; and some excellent photographs taken at Prague (of which the one here reproduced is astonishingly faithful) complete this list of likenesses.

INDEX

_Achilles, The Education of_ _Adam_ (destroyed) _Adonis, The Death of_ _Age of Brass, The_ Antiope (of Correggio), The Antique, The, influence of, on Rodin Rodin's analysis of its right use its truth and beauty Aphrodite (by Lucien Schnegg) _Apollo,_ the two reliefs Aube _Autumn_ (stone) _Avarice and Lewdness_

_Balzac, Statue of_ Barrias; his monument to Hugo Bartholomé Bartlett Barye Bassier, Jean _Bastien-Lepage, Statue of_ Baudelaire Beauvais _Becque, Henry, Bust of_ dry-point portraits of _Bellona_ _Benedictions, The_ Bergerat, M., Rodin's drawings for his book Besnard, Mme. Boisbaudron, Lecoq de Boucher, the sculptor Bourdelle, Emile _Broken Nose, The Man with the_ _Brother and Sister_ Brussels _Burghers of Calais, The_ Burgundian sculptors, 38 Busts, Rodin's portrait, 17, 18, 21, 29, 31, 33, 84

Carcano, Marchioness of Carpeaux Carrier-Belleuse Carrière, Eugène his opinion of Rodin's art _Caryatid, The_ Celtic genius, The Chaplin Chappe, A statue of Chapu Charpentier, Alexandre Chartres, The cathedral of _Christ and the Magdalen_ _Christian Martyr, The_ Cladel, Mlle. Classicism, Rodin's Clodion Clot, lithographer _Conqueror, A, holding a Statue of Victory_ Corneille Correggio Costume in sculpture, The question of Couston Coysevox _Crouching Man, The_ Dalou; Rodin's bust of Dampt, Jean _Danaid, The_ Dante David of Angers Devillez _Day_ Delacroix Delaplanche Desbois Donatello Drawings and sketches, Rodin's _Dream-Group_ Dry-points, Rodin's Dubois, Paul Duhem, Henri Dujalbert Dutch painting

Egyptian sculpture Eiffel Tower Emerson quoted Erotic subjects, Rodin's treatment of Etchings, Rodin's _Eternal Idol, The_ _Eve_ Exhibited works Exhibition with Claude Monet, the

Fagel Falconet Falguière his "Balzac" Rodin's bust of _Faun and Nymph Fauns and Bacchantes_ _Fenaille, Bust of Mme._ Fenaille, M.; his edition of Rodin's drawings _Fiennes, Jean de,_ Finish, False notions of Flemish primitives Fleurs du Mal, Baudelaire's Rodin's illustrations to Florence Baptistery Gates, as model of _The Gate of Hell_ France, Anatole _Franck, Medallion of Cæsar_ Frémiet Fuller, Loïe

_Galatea_ Gallé, Emile Gallimard, M. Gardet _Gate of Hell, The_ _Genius of War, The_ Gluck, 105 Gothic sculptures, Rodin's study of Goujon Greek sculpture Guillaume

_Hand of God, The_ _Hecuba_ _Helmet-maker, The Fair_ Henley, W. E. his opinion of Rodin's art Hokusai Houdon _Hugo, Victor, Bust of_ dry-point portraits of the _Monument to_

_Icarus_ _Illusion, the Daughter of Icarus_ _Inferno,_ Dante's Inspiration _Iris_ Italy, Rodin's travels in

Japanese bronzes and prints, Rodin's admiration of Jasmin, Clément Joan of Arc, Rude's

_Kiss, The_

_Labour, Monument to_ Lamartine _Laurens, Jean Paul, Bust of_ Lavoisier, A statue of Lefèvre, Camille Legros, Alphonse; bust of _Lorraine, Claude, The Monument to_ Louvre, the _Love and Psyche_ _Lovers, Groups of_ Luxembourg, The _Lynch, Statue of_

MacColl, D. S. _Magdalen, The_ _Mahomet_ (drawing) Mallarmé, Stéphane Manet _Man Walking_ _Man with the Broken Nose, The_ (clay head) (marble) Marseillaise, Rude's Marx, Roger bust of _Meditation_ Meudon, Rodin's house and studio at Michael Angelo _Minerva_ (helmeted bust) (marble and silver) Minne, George Mirbeau, Octave bust of medallion of Rodin's drawings for his books Monet, Claude _Monument to the Defenders of the Nation_ Morbidezza _Mother, The Young_ _Muse of Anger_

_Muse of the Inner Voice_ Museums

Nancy Naples Museum Napoleon Awakening to Immortality, Rude's Neo-Greek School, Errors and defects of _Nereids, The_ Niederhausern-Rodo _Night,_ Nude, The _Nymph, A,_

_Orpheus and Eurydice_

Paintings, Rodin's Pajou Pantheon, The _Perseus and the Gorgon_ Pica, Vittorio Pigalle Pilon, Germain Poe _Poet and the Life of Contemplation, The_ _Poets and Muses_ Préault, Auguste Private Collections _Proust, Antonin, Bust of_ dry-point of _Psyche_ Puech, Denys Puget Puvis de Chavannes; bust of monument to _Pygmalion_