My Article: Seeking Everlasting Halo In The Mist of Controversy

Frank




After spending hours and hours studying one of the most welknown artist in the world: Auguste Rodin, it took me so long to start an essay about my feelings and thoughts about his dramatically and legendary life.
At the very beginning, I thought the process of studying a famous artist's life would be really easy and smooth. All I should do is reading the biography of the artist and analysing his or her major art works, just like what I did when I study a piece of painting.






From the period between 12 November 1840 to 17 November 1917, Auguste Rodin started from the beginning as an normal art student and later became a notable sculptor in his years. His achievement in the field of sculpture is so illustrious that his other forms of art, including drawing, painting and prints were shadowed into blackness.
In the far-flung river of art history, Auguste Rodin is not only seen as a preeminent French sculptor of his time, but also considered as the progenitor of modern sculpture, in another word, the transmitter from traditional sculpture to modern art. "His one foot has already stepped into the door of modern art while the other foot was leaving in the room of traditional school of art."





Rodin's early life is so normal that he mostly gained his reputation in his later years. Just like a lot of artists, he depended on self-education when he was a little child. Then he went to a school specializing in art and the place where he learned the importance of the independence of thought and gained his appreciation of truth and reality through his eyes.
In the first twenty years, Rodin is hard working and willing to be an artist in the future. He was once depressed by the death of his sister and the rejection of the best art school within France. But he never gives up studying art and exploring the world of sculpture.
As a maniac of art and a "pencil artist" who value technical skill a lot, I was atracted by Rodin's craftsmanship(although I realized his other side of his artworks later on), I was greatly surprised that many of Rodin's most notable sculptures were roundly criticized during his lifetime.

"They clashed with the predominant figure sculpture tradition, in which works were decorative, formulaic, or highly thematic. Rodin's most original work departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, modeled the human body with realism, and celebrated individual character and physicality." Although Rodin was sensitive to the controversy about his work, he did not change his style. He just simply keep on working and finally his successive works brought increasing favor from the government and the artistic community.
Greatly influenced by Michelangelo, his early works, including his famous Age of Bronze, are so realistic and emotional."Michelangelo freed him from traditional style of sculpture."
Later on, his masterpiece, Gate of Hell marked his life and increased his reputation at the same time. His The Thinker and The Kiss were shown in the Gate of Hell as reduced figures.




In 1883, Rodin stared to supervise a course where he met the Camille Claudel who is only 18 years old. Surprisingly, Rodin fell in love with Camille, and Camille loved him back, they formed a passionate relationship and influenced each other artistically. Claudel inspired Rodin as a model for many of his figures, and she was a talented sculptor, assisting him on commissions. But Rodin and Claudel could never combine together for the reason that Rodin already has a kid with Rose Beuret, Rodin's former lover.
In the passion of his love, Rodin finished some of his masterpiece, like The Eternal Spring and The Eternal Idol.



I've read a lot of comments on Rodin's "eternal" works. Some people consider those two sculptures are inapprociate and even think they are erotic. In the sculptures, the skin to skin depiction of the couples and their passionate action become so controversy among the society. Boldly speaking, in my own opinion, I consider those two works are irrational and honest. What Rodin want to depict in The Eternal Idol is how a young man in love with a girl tries to show his frantic love to her. He admired her and shows his respect by tenderly kissing the girls stomach. Some may think Rodin was struggling in the balance between human's purity of love and the evil ideas. What I see is the best way to express this idea and his sculptures actually did the best job ever.








I do not try to deny that

during his later creative years, Rodin's work turned increasingly toward the female form. He concentrated on and produced numerous erotic drawings "without taking his pencil from the paper or his eyes from the model."
Anyway, I still think Rodin is a great artist and one of the best sculptors in this world. He interpretates human's love in a more honest and realistic way and did not avoid the depiction of human's deep thoughts.

Sources:
http://bbs.duote.com/viewthread.php?tid=131640&page=1&authorid=393801
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auguste_Rodin
http://news.xinhuanet.com/book/2004-10/25/content_2135436.htm
http://baike.baidu.com/view/17018.htm
http://images.google.cn/images?hl=zh-CN&q=%E7%BD%97%E4%B8%B9&rlz=1W1BJYT_zh-cnUS317&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=wWjUSbWgGseIkAWTmemGDw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&resnum=5&ct=title
http://images.google.cn/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sj33.cn/ys/UploadFiles/200712/20071210235056296.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sj33.cn/ys/hhys/200712/13129.html&usg=__KtSc5mxnT81GKtTHPJOabRdoQrM=&h=1200&w=740&sz=129&hl=zh-CN&start=1&um=1&tbnid=N-Wkbok4bd12bM:&tbnh=150&tbnw=93&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%25E7%25BD%2597%25E4%25B8%25B9%26hl%3Dzh-CN%26rlz%3D1W1BJYT_zh-cnUS317%26sa%3DX%26um%3D1%26newwindow%3D1
http://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%A5%A5%E5%8F%A4%E6%96%AF%E7%89%B9%C2%B7%E7%BD%97%E4%B8%B9
http://www.bbtpress.com/homepagebook/775/b01.htm