Art

by Auguste Rodin

CONTENTS

	Page
Preface	[5]
CHAPTER I
Realism in Art	[25]
CHAPTER II
To the Artist all in Nature is Beautiful	[37]
CHAPTER III
Modelling	[53]
CHAPTER IV
Movement in Art	[65]
CHAPTER V
Drawing and Color	[93]
CHAPTER VI
The Beauty of Women	[111]
CHAPTER VII
Of Yesterday and of To-day	[121]
CHAPTER VIII
Thought in Art	[151]
CHAPTER IX
Mystery in Art	[175]
CHAPTER X
Phidias and Michael Angelo	[191]
CHAPTER XI
At the Louvre	[211]
CHAPTER XII
On the Usefulness of the Artist	[227]
Translations	[249]
Index	[255]

ILLUSTRATIONS

Eternal Spring. By Rodin	[Frontispiece]
	FACING PAGE
Auguste Rodin. From a photograph by Edouard J. Steichen, 1907	[5]
The Flight of Love. By Rodin	[6]
Auguste Rodin. From a drawing by William Rothenstein	[8]
The Creation of Man, or Adam. By Rodin	[10]
Eve. By Rodin	[12]
Eve. By Rodin	[14]
Plaster Casts of The Gate of Hell. By Rodin	[26]
Study for a Figure. By Rodin	[28]
Study for a Hand. By Rodin	[28]
Study. By Rodin	[30]
Study. By Rodin	[30]
Invocation. By Rodin	[32]
Study. By Rodin	[34]
Study. By Rodin	[34]
The Old Courtesan. By Rodin	[38]
The Magdalene. By Donatello	[38]
A Hand in Bronze. By Rodin	[40]
Sebastian, Fool of Philip IV. By Velasquez	[42]
The Man with the Hoe. By Millet	[44]
The Danaïd. By Rodin	[52]
Venus di Medici	[54]
Antique Torso	[56]
A Drawing. By Michael Angelo. See page [98]	[56]
Crouching Venus	[58]
Faun. By Praxiteles	[60]
The Age of Iron. By Rodin	[64]
Man Walking. By Rodin	[66]
The Tempest. By Rodin	[68]
Marshal Ney. By Rude	[70]
Saint John the Baptist. By Rodin	[72]
Saint John the Baptist. By Rodin. (Two different aspects)	[74]
Europa. Italian School of the Fifteenth Century	[76]
Epsom Races. By Gericault	[76]
The Embarkation for the Island of Cythera. By Watteau	[78]
The Marseillaise. By Rude	[80]
The Burghers of Calais. By Rodin	[82]
Eustache de Saint-Pierre. By Rodin	[84]
One of the Burghers of Calais. By Rodin	[84]
One of the Burghers of Calais. By Rodin	[86]
One of the Burghers of Calais. By Rodin	[86]
One of the Burghers of Calais. By Rodin	[88]
Cupid and Psyche. By Rodin	[92]
The Embrace. Study-sketch by Rodin	[94]
Study of the Nude. By Rodin	[94]
Torso of a Woman. By Rodin	[98]
A Drawing. By Michael Angelo	[100]
A Drawing. By Rembrandt	[102]
Study. By Rodin	[104]
Study for a Figure. By Rodin	[104]
Triton and Nereid. By Rodin	[106]
The Caryatid. By Rodin	[106]
The Bather. By Rodin	[110]
Torso of a Woman. By Rodin	[112]
Torso of a Woman. By Rodin	[112]
Pygmalion and Galatea. By Rodin	[114]
Study of Hanako, the Japanese Actress. By Rodin	[116]
Study of the Nude. By Rodin	[116]
Madame X. By Rodin	[118]
Mlle. Brongniart. By Houdon	[124]
Egyptian Sparrow-Hawk. See page [180]	[124]
Voltaire. By Houdon	[126]
Mirabeau. By Houdon	[126]
Francis I. By Titian	[130]
Henri Rochefort. By Rodin	[138]
Jean-Paul Laurens. By Rodin	[140]
Jules Dalou. By Rodin	[140]
Puvis de Chavannes. By Rodin	[142]
The Sculptor Falguière. By Rodin	[144]
Study for a Head, presumably Madame R. By Rodin	[146]
Study Head, for the Statue of Balzac. By Rodin	[146]
The Statue of Victor Hugo. By Rodin	[154]
Bust of Mlle. Claudel (La Pensée). By Rodin	[156]
The Shipwreck of Don Juan. By Delacroix	[158]
Ugolino. By Rodin	[160]
Illusion, the Daughter of Icarus. By Rodin	[162]
Nymph and Faun. By Rodin	[164]
The Centauress. By Rodin	[166]
Italian Landscape. By Corot	[168]
An Old Man. By Rembrandt	[170]
Laura Dianti. By Titian	[170]
The Thinker. By Rodin	[174]
The Hand of God. By Rodin	[176]
The Statue of Balzac. By Rodin	[178]
The Gleaners. By Millet	[182]
The Three Fates. From the Parthenon	[184]
The Kiss. By Rodin	[186]
Bust of Madame Morla Vicuna. By Rodin	[188]
A Captive. By Michael Angelo	[198]
The Three Graces. By Raphael	[200]
Diadumenes. By Polycletus	[212]
Venus of Milo	[214]
The Victory of Samothrace	[216]
A Captive. By Michael Angelo	[218]
La Pietà. By Michael Angelo	[222]
Orpheus and Eurydice. By Rodin	[226]
La France. By Rodin	[228]
The Broken Lily. By Rodin	[230]
Ceres. By Rodin	[234]
The Torn Glove. By Titian	[236]
Victor Hugo Offering his Lyre to the City of Paris. By Puvis de Chavannes	[238]
Mother and Babe. By Rodin	[240]
Sister and Brother. By Rodin	[242]
Bust of Mr. Thomas Fortune Ryan. By Rodin	[244]

CHAPTER I
REALISM IN ART

At the end of the long rue de l’Université, close to the Champ-de-Mars, in a corner, so deserted and monastic that you might think yourself in the provinces, is the Dépôt des Marbres.

Here in a great grass-grown court sleep heavy grayish blocks, presenting in places fresh breaks of frosted whiteness. These are the marbles reserved by the State for the sculptors whom she honors with her orders.

Along one side of this courtyard is a row of a dozen ateliers which have been granted to different sculptors. A little artist city, marvellously tranquil, it seems the fraternity house of a new order. Rodin occupies two of these cells; in one he houses the plaster cast of his Gate of Hell, astonishing even in its unfinished state, and in the other he works.

More than once I have been to see him here towards evening, when his day of toil drew to its close, and taking a chair, I have waited for the moment when the night would oblige him to stop, and I have studied him at his work. The desire to profit by the last rays of daylight threw him into a fever.

I see him now, rapidly shaping his little figures from the clay. It is a game which he enjoys in the intervals of the more patient care which he gives to his big figures. These sketches flung off on the instant delight him, because they permit him to seize the fleeting beauty of a gesture whose fugitive truth would escape deeper and longer study.