This Davidson College exhibition showcases 22 Rodin sculptures

Auguste Rodin is considered the father of modern sculpture. The French artist was bold, progressive, and successful during his lifetime. He questioned ideas of classical beauty, as well as what sculpture could be.

Famous for works like “The Thinker” and “The Kiss,” his determination to portray the true human experience is still celebrated today.

Now, 22 of his pieces are on display at Davidson College as part of a traveling exhibition. The college has owned a large Rodin bronze, “Jean d’Aire Nude,” since 1993. The Pepper Family donated it to mark the dedication of the Katherine and Tom Belk Visual Arts Center. It stands in that building’s atrium and the “Auguste Rodin: Truth Form Life” exhibition is steps away in the college’s Van Every Gallery.

The exhibition is on view through April 5. It’s on loan from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, the largest collection of Rodin works in the United States. B. Gerald Cantor, a founding partner of the Cantor Fitzgerald financial services firm, was a prominent arts supporter. He and his wife underwrote exhibitions, donated works, and promoted Rodin’s legacy purely out of admiration and respect.

Rodin’s process

To appreciate the Davidson exhibition, visitors must first understand the way sculptors worked in Rodin’s time. He was the mastermind behind an entire studio. He created the original form in clay then passed it off to someone else to cast in plaster. Another person would cast it in bronze and others would polish and finish it. The same form could be remade in a different size or material.

While Rodin is the creator of these works, many hands touched them before they were considered complete. Many of the work on display in Davidson were modeled in Rodin’s lifetime but cast many years after his death in 1917.

Rodin left his estate to the French state on the condition that his studio be turned into a museum and work there continue.

The Musée Rodin is the authority on what should be cast at which time and has systems and rules in place to protect the artist’s legacy. That is why the bronze sculptures that were cast as late as the 1990s in this exhibition are considered completely authorized and authentic works by Rodin himself.

Studios were driven by commissions, meaning works were paid for and the theme decided upon before production began. These large scale works required many “studies,” which were themselves cast into bronze as independent artworks. Many of the works on view in Davidson were studies. Once Rodin was an established artist, prominent commissions, which produced a multitude of studies, were his bread and butter.

Forging a path

Rodin was not always the imposing canonical figure of art history he is today. Born in 1840, he was rejected not once but three times from L’École des Beaux-Arts — the place where artists learned from the best of the best, networked themselves into exhibitions, and got their work seen by people with money to support it.

Rodin worked as a craftsman for many years to earn money while building his own style. Some of his early works lean towards classical style because that was what was accepted at the time.

An example in this exhibition is “Bust of Jean Baptiste Rodin,” modeled in 1860. Jean Baptiste was Rodin’s father, a working-class family man. However, he appears like a Roman statesman, regal and resolved. Rodin made this when he was 20, following a safer, traditional path he would later reject.

“Because he was able to work in this very classical way, he was able to get more commissions, and then he was able to do things the way he wanted to do them. He commanded more respect,” said Lia Newman, director/curator of Davidson College Art Galleries.

Imperfect glory

Rodin fundamentally changed the idea of what “good” sculpture was. He sculpted people in all their imperfect glory, arguing that these portrayals were more interesting, more true to life. The exhibition includes two works that speak to that: “Heroic Bust of Victor Hugo” and “Balzac in a Dominican Robe.”

In the Hugo sculpture, Rodin portrays the hero of French literature as having a wild, creative nature. The sculpture’s finish is rougher and looser, providing plenty of facets to catch light in different ways. Hugo looks more tormented than erudite and very different from his typical portrayals.

The large sculpture of Balzac, a commission from the 1890s, included over 50 studies. Rodin said of the process: “Never has a statue caused me more worry, put my patience more to the test.” The result is a rotund, proud looking man in a monk’s robe. It is true to Balzac’s appearance, but not flattering.

Body parts as art

Rodin also pushed the idea of what a complete sculpture is. He is noted for presenting single body parts as finished works of art. “That was a new idea,” Newman said. “He pushed the idea that this was a legitimate way to work.”

Living in Paris, Rodin likely took inspiration from Greek and Roman sculpture in the Louvre Museum collection. Many of those had limbs, fingers, and even heads broken off due to 2,000-plus years of wear and tear.

Two pieces on view in Davidson, “Study for Torso of the Walking Man” and “Monumental Torso of the Walking Man,” began as studies of a model’s torso in preparation for “Saint John the Baptist Preaching,” also on view.

In figures without arms or legs, Rodin shows movement, strength and agility. Another standout group of fragment sculptures is a case of three hands. One is an elegant, smooth hand with extended fingers titled “Large Hand of a Pianist.” The other two look as if their owners are in pain, with wrists bent back, fingers clenched. Rodin modeled hundreds of hands, finding they were a way to convey emotion.

Related works

Of particular relevance in the exhibition are sculptures made in relation to the monumental commission “The Burghers of Calais,” completed in 1889, the work from which the college’s “Jean d’Aire Nude” comes.

In 1346 during the Hundred Years’ War, the port city of Calais was under siege by the British. When the French were forced to surrender, the British king offered to spare the city’s people if six leaders (Burghers) would surrender themselves.

Rodin’s sculpture pictures this group of prominent community members with their heads hung, filled with anguish, as they walk towards their execution, keys to the city in hand. Included in the exhibition are the related works “Monumental Head of Jean d’Aire, “Jean d’Aire, Second Maquette,” and “Final Head of Eustache de St. Pierre.”

New works

Davidson is taking this opportunity to add two more works to its sculpture collection. “Since we say Rodin is the father of modern sculpture, it felt necessary to incorporate contemporary artists that are adding to the conversation around sculpture in a different way,” Newman said.

The first piece is by Patrick Dougherty, an N.C. artist known for creating large, elaborate works by twisting and sculpting with vines, twigs and branches. The college will also dedicate a work by James Surls. Known for his abstract works referencing the natural world, Surls is set to receive the International Sculpture Center Lifetime Achievement Award.

Auguste Rodin exhibition

What: ”Auguste Rodin: Truth Form Life” is a traveling exhibition that includes 22 Rodin sculptures.

Where: Van Every Gallery at Davidson College, 315 N. Main St.., Davidson

When: On view through April 5

Details: www.davidsoncollegeartgalleries.org.

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This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 12:11 PM.