Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François Auguste René Rodin, known as Auguste Rodin, was a French sculptor. 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...
NationalityFrench
ProfessionSculptor
Date of Birth12 November 1840
CityParis, France
CountryFrance
The delicate droop of the petals standing out in relief, is like the eyelid of a child.
I am like a moon that shines on an immense, unknown sea where ships never pass
Genius only comes to those who know how to use their eyes and their intelligence.
The artist has only to trust his eyes.
Mere exactitude, of which photography and moulage [life casting] are the lowest forms, does not inspire feelings.
I believe that photography can create great works of art, but hitherto it has been extraordinarily bourgeois and babbling. (1908)
Black is the queen of colours.
Mystery is like a kind of atmosphere which bathes the greatest works of the masters.
Recently I have taken to isolating limbs, the torso. Why am I blamed for it? Why is the head allowed and not portions of the body? Every part of the human figure is expressive.
If the artist succeeds in producing the impression of a movement which takes several moments for accomplishment, his work is certainly much less conventional than the scientific image, where time is abruptly suspended.
There is a continual exchange of ideas between all minds of a generation. Journalists, popular novelists, illustrators, and cartoonists adapt the truths discovered by the powerful intellects for the multitude. It is like a spiritual flood, like a gush that pours into multiple cascades until it forms the great moving sheet of water that stands for the mentality of a period.
The only principle in art is to copy what you see. Dealers in aesthetics to the contrary, every other method is fatal.
Nobody does good to men with impunity.
I have unbounded admiration for the nude. I worship it like a god.