CORPS ET DÉCORS, RODIN AND THE DECORATIVE ARTS

Rodin, Bas-relief décoratif, deux nus féminins
dans un médaillon, plâtre - Vers 1900 ? – Musée Rodin
© musée Rodin - photo : Christian Baraja

Rodin, Vase aux puttis, fusain
1879 – Musée Rodin
© musée Rodin – Photo : Jean de Calan

Rodin, Projet de Cheminée avec la Mort du poète, plâtre
1912 – Musée Rodin
© musé Rodin - photo : Christian Baraja

Rodin, Seau de Pompéi la Nuit, porcelaine de Sèvres
1882-83 – Musée Rodin
© musée Rodin - photo : Christian Baraja

RODIN, DECORATIVE SCULPTOR

It’s easy to forget that Rodin began his career as a decorative sculptor. Trained at the Petite École de Dessin et d’Architecture, Rodin worked for the Carrier-Belleuse atelier in the early 1870s. He participated in several decorative projects, from the Théâtre des Gobelins to the fountains at Trocadero, including even the Stock Exchange of Brussels.

Various studies, ornamental busts, and elements of monumental decoration from this period are part of the exhibition. In 1879, Rodin entered the Sèvres workshop. He produced several vases embellished with bacchantes, fauns, and children. Corps et décors presents the largest collection of these displayed since 1907, including two Shanghai vases that are recent Musée Rodin acquisitions.

PUBLIC COMMISSIONS & REDUCTIONS

The Gates of Hell, an unfinished masterpiece and inexhaustible source of figures, was originally a public commission. The State had initially planned it as the façade of a museum of decorative arts. Other commissions followed. They came from patrons like the Baron Vitta or the industrialist Maurice Fenaille, who wished to make Rodin’s art a part of their daily surroundings. Simultaneously, reductions of subjects such as The Kiss or Eternal Spring were mass-produced, in response to the desires of buyers of more modest financial means. For Rodin, the 1880s saw a fertile convergence between the different domains of his activities. Later on, the artist began to experiment with different materials and changes of scale, incessantly reinterpreting his own creations.