The plaque represents France with a head-dress that follows somewhat the form of a liberty cap, and is half-indicated as the skin of a cock. A claw and a comb seem almost discernible in the boldly modelled planes and ridges. “La France” herself is a young woman with a strong face. The nose is modelled in a few bold planes, and is large. The eyes are staring and archaic. The mouth is firm, but is more kindly modelled than the nose, and the chin and cheeks are rounded, and, though firm, more feminine than the rest of the countenance. The pose is alert, even aggressive. It is too masculine to be immediately attractive, but familiarity with it seems to subdue its harshness and bring out its charm, until it is seen to possess that indescribable quality of mystery that belongs to a few famous portraits.
M. Hanotaux said that “it was fit to replace the Mona Lisa.” Perhaps he is right. There is no doubt at least that it is the work of a master. It has been placed on the front of the pedestal that carries the statue of Champlain.
Allegorical Interpretation.
[Suggested by Henry W. Hill, Secretary of the Commission.]
In addition to the foregoing technical description, this chef-d’œuvre may also have another interpretation, for it was designed to symbolize France, through the transformation of ten centuries of turbulence, revolution and evolution, the center of the Republican movement in Europe and finally emerging triumphantly reconstructed and self-reliant, the exponent among Continental nations of the liberty, equality and fraternity of mankind. In her new Renaissance of constitutional government, the spirit of intense patriotism has taken possession of her people and France is another illustration of the solidarity of those communities and stability of those nations, which are actuated by and founded upon popular liberties.
Front View of Rodin Bust “La France”
In contemplating this work, we are made to realize that the French as well as the Italians have an intuitive appreciation of the ideals in æsthetics and they are setting the standards of their ideals in art so high, that France as well as Italy is leading most other nations in artistic achievement as may be seen in the marvelous productions of her modern sculptors, whose works are not only found in the Louvre, the Musée du Luxembourg and in other collections, but also adorn the palaces, boulevards and public grounds of Paris and other municipalities of France.
The moderate encouragement given there to art by the state and the people of the country has undoubtedly stimulated original and creative production in sculpture as well as in painting, notwithstanding the apathy once described by Théodore Duret, who declared that “there is nothing sadder to recount in the whole history of art than the persecution inflicted upon truly original and creative artists of the country.” In this martyrdom of those devoted to æsthetic achievements the world over inheres the truth of the Roman adage, patitur qui vincit. Auguste Rodin, who was born in Paris in 1840 and elected President of the International Society of Sculptors, Painters and Engravers in 1904, has conquered and lives to see his works admired in both hemispheres, notwithstanding his disregard of the canons and conventionalities of the French Institute, which were repulsive to him. He has devoted himself to a mastery of nature, as zealously as did Michael Angelo to the study of anatomy. He is original and creative and his works are now appreciated by members of the Institute as well as by the savants in art the world over. His success in his field of sculptural achievement is largely due to his intense application to nature, as interpreted through the perspective of a vivid imagination, a poetic temperament and a keen appreciation of the beautiful and the sublime. These have impelled him to reject the conventional details, due to uniform rules applying to all alike, regardless of the individual characteristics, apparent in the works of many sculptors and to devote himself to productions, which are the embodiment of individual realism. In “La France,” one appreciates that he has produced a work with an exuberance of detail as stately as the Greek conception of the ideal head, shown in the marble copy of the Athene Parthenos of Phidias. It is a production of marked originality and has the character and the strength of the works of Donatello and of Michael Angelo, which contain “infinitely subtle shades of form in each sinuosity of contour” and are suggestive of living personalities. Whether or not we accept the intuitional theory of æsthetics, propounded by Benedetto Croce and others, that beauty is spiritual activity or expression and nothing more and is not predicable of nature apart from expression, we cannot fail to appreciate that the works of Rodin,[1] which are true to nature or an improvement upon it, are illustrations of perfect æsthetic expression and therefore fall within Signore Croce’s category of æsthetic productions.
The allegorical bust, “La France,” a work of poetic symbolism, reveals something of the culture and the contemplative character and native resolution of that nation, which struggles and conquers and whose intellectual development—through the various stages of a complex and progressive civilization, broadened by the discovery of her navigators and the assumption of the responsibility of colonial government of her own and alien races, ameliorated by the responsiveness of her statesmen to popular ideas, thus solving the perplexing problems of organization and administration, enlightened by the brilliant achievements of her scientists and of her littérateurs, ennobled by the ethical teachings of her philosophers and uplifted by the inspiration of her poets and by the marvelous creations of her sculptors, her painters and her architects—is the fruition of that universal genius, which is regenerating and immortal. This has enabled France to maintain a leading position in the onward march of civilization and to mold her institutions in conformity to the world’s approved ethical and political standards.