RODIN AS COLLECTOR Claudie Judrin

Assemblage : Kneeling FemaLe Torso in a Greek Cup c.1900 ? plaster 23 x 25,7 x 18,5 cm S.3611 Photo : E. & P. Hesmerg

An artist’s liking for works of art comes into being with his desire to invent. It is through having models beneath his eyes that he finds his own language. At the start of life examples are thrust upon you, and Rodin studied in the studios and at the Louvre. At a later stage when the artist has made his way and success has given him some financial resources and some leisure, he chooses his own surroundings. While the public are sometimes unanimous in recognizing the beauty of these objects, as in the case of Van Gogh’s Père Tanguy, they may find them disconcerting, for what is involved is a very personal taste, often relating to something the artist was looking for at a given time. We have to be able to decipher the story.
Before moving into the Hôtel Biron Rodin bought the Villa des Brillants in Meudon in 1895. Gradually he furnished his domain with a multitude of objects, virtually doubling the volume of his oeuvre.

Franck Bal Rodin sitting amidst his Collection gelatin silver print 19 x 27,8 cm Ph. 7004

His visual curiosity ranged over countries, centuries and genres to such an extent that Ariadne’s thread is in danger of breaking. Antique dealers from all over Europe constantly offered him items, and Rodin accepted with varying degrees of felicity as he dabbled in everything.
Setting aside the Far East, Rodin’s collection is usually described under the all-embracing term “Antiquities.” Rodin saw it as “his museum”, whereas today Rodin’s own creative work is itself regarded as a museum. The gift made to the state in 1916 included Rodin and his collection. Pharaonic art is fully represented by over 500 items ranging from the Vth to the XXXth Dynasty. We also find hundred or so Coptic fabrics. Rodin enjoyed describing a certain falcon or cat which he particularly liked.
Greece and Rome in his eyes had a perfection derived from the very fountainhead of nature and life. He accumulated marbles, castings, plasters, bronzes, terra-cottas and hundreds of vases. These Greek vases were so close to the sculptor’s heart that he housed his own plaster figurines in them, just as he liked buying columns and capitals and adding his own subjects to them. It was his way of being at one with Antiquity.

The author of Les Cathédrales de France did not neglect mediaeval sculpture. A Few months before his death he paid 6000 francs for a mourner from the tomb of Jean de Berry at Bourges. He was sometimes given objects as a present. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke who was also his secretary gave him a St Christopher when he moved into the Hôtel Biron, seeing him as another Rodin.

Nor did the sculptor fail to take an interest in the painters of his own day. He admired Van Gogh’s independence and bought three of bis paintings. He posed for Renoir, buying his Female Nude from the Leclanché collection at the Bernheim-jeune gallery for 20,000 francs in 1910. Monet’s Belle-lle and the Falguière, the Thaulow and the Zuloaga were acquired in exchange for bronzes, plasters or drawings. A friend he certainly admired profoundly was Eugène Carrière whose Mother and Child is reminiscent of the marbles left deliberately rough at the end of Rodin’s life.

The presence of a copy of Rembrandt’s Batthsheba, can be accounted for by Rodin’s unbounded respect for the Dutch master’s mystery. This capacity to marvel at and admire works of art is the privilege of artists and collectors.